The basketball world received some potentially scary news on Thursday night. Zion Williamson, the prized No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, did not travel to New York to play in the New Orleans Pelicans’ final preseason game against the Knicks. The diagnosis was a knee issue, but there was no word on the extent to which the former Duke standout was banged up outside of some soreness that required further testing.
There still is no official diagnosis, but according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, there is some good news and bad news about what happened. Williamson is expected to miss some time due to the ailment, but according to Wojnarowski, it’s nothing severe and the Pelicans are optimistic he’ll make a “full recovery.”
A severe injury has been ruled out for Zion Williamson’s right knee, but he is expected to miss period of weeks to start regular season, league sources tell ESPN. Pels are clearly treating injury with an abundance of caution but there’s no shortage of confidence on full recovery.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) October 18, 2019
It goes without saying, but a severe knee injury for someone as explosive and nimble as Williamson had the potential to be a brutal blow before his promising career even got off the ground. Fortunately that doesn’t appear like it’s going to happen, and while it might take some time to see him suit up in his first regular season game and show what he can do as a member of this new-look Pelicans franchise, hopefully he’ll be back to 100 percent and able take the floor sooner rather than later.
