Zion Williamson Sidelined For 6-8 Weeks

10/21/2019 By Sofia Naumovski

Courtesy of MGN Online

On Monday, the New Orleans Pelicans announced that Zion Williamson will miss their season opener against Toronto. The first overall pick underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair a torn meniscus and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.

Pelicans fans will have to continue to standby to see the long awaited Williamson make his NBA debut. Williamson played only one year as a Duke Blue Devil before being drafted as the first overall pick by the Pelicans in June’s NBA Draft.

At Duke, Williamson picked up numerous accolades including National Player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year and ACC Tournament MVP. He became the first freshman in ACC history to average 20.0+ points, 8.0+ rebounds, 2.0+ steal and shoot .600+ from the field.

When asked about what the loss of Williamson, Pelicans shooting guard JJ Reddick told reporters, “It’s still the start of the season. We still get to play real games. We get to compete.We have a deep team. We’ll hold it down as best we can without him. Obviously we need him back and hopefully he takes his time and recovers fully.”

Williamson is set to return before Christmas Day, but his period of absence invites larger questions about his health. He was injured at Duke and was sidelined for much of the Pelicans summer league games as a precaution after sustaining a bruised left knee.

The New Orleans Pelicans open up their season against the Raptors Tuesday night at 7PM/EST in Toronto.