Here we go again with the Zion Williamson offseason glow-up. Pictures of the New Orleans Pelicans forward surfaced online recently, showing a shredded version of the player that looks the part that the world has expected him to play since he entered the NBA in 2019: elite.
The images were a welcome departure from the news cycle around Williamson that eclipsed his basketball-playing abilities and led directly to his bedroom with ex-fling Moriah Mills outing their sexual relationship on social media.
Williamson went silent and Mills went rampant in describing the financial surrogacy she alleges to have received from Williamson amid her finding out he was having a baby with someone else.
Additionally, Mills stated she was pregnant, allegedly getting Williamson’s name tattooed on her face. However, the images are erasing any doubt that Mills expressed about Williamson having no discipline and not being willing to workout and meet his athletic potential.
Zanos Energy
The player, nicknamed Zanos by his former Duke University teammates, appeared last month on the “Gil’s Arena” podcast, breaking his silence and discussing his tactics to stay in shape.
“There are times when I wasn’t [dieting], man that sh*t hard,” Williamson said. “Twenty, 22, I got a lot of money; it feels like all the money in the world, man, it is hard, but I’m at that point now where, because of certain things, I’m putting the wisdom back around me, putting the people around me with wisdom to put me up on game on certain things and take it from there.”
Those “certain things” were probably a Moriah Mills reference, as it was a very public spectacle that could have permanently dismantled his career. Williamson appears to realize how precious his circumstances really are and is changing his circle. Williamson also admitted he is growing up.
The Glow Up
“It’s an invincibility trade,” Williamson continued. “When you’re young, you feel like you can’t … so the diet piece, I’m always able to come each summer feeling good, looking good, but I would say it more of just locking in on flexibility bandwork because I think it those things that will be able to keep me on the court longer versus just losing a bunch of weight and then coming to play not being able to maintain that. ‘Bron got the blueprint; I’m trying my best to follow him.”
Williamson wants the world to know that he hears the naysayers who believe he is perpetually injured and content with getting a check from the sidelines. After all, he played in only 29 games last season, the second-most in his four-year NBA career.
“At this point in my life, I’m just looking back at it … at the end of the day, people are going to give their opinions, but what I can say is I respect brutal honesty,” Williamson said. “I’d rather somebody be brutally honest with me than try to sugarcoat it because if they’re honest with me, I know what I need to do to fix it.
“When I’m on the sidelines that hurts me more than anything because I’m a hooper.”
Let Zion cook during the offseason, because it now comes with nutritional guidance and OG wisdom to help him sustain for the upcoming season.
