WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ZION WILLIAMSON, WHO LOST HIS CAREER IN SCANDALS?
A woman is accusing him of rape and abuse in a civil case, which comes after five New Orleans seasons when he was overweight and couldn’t stay healthy — to the point he might be ignored by other teams
Zion was the kingdom of heaven, or so said the biblically dubious. He was expected to be a Hall of Famer, the most lethal protege of Mike Krzyzewski and Duke, a monster who slaughtered his way to dunks. “He ain’t just strong, he’s powerful,” said Draymond Green, who didn’t dare sneer at him. “Taking him on two days in a row — my back hurt, my hips hurt, I’m banged all up. I’m hurt, brother.”
So how did the honorable Zion Williamson become one of the NBA’s biggest problem children, overweight and unreliable for too many years and suddenly in a civil lawsuit battle with a woman accusing him of rape and nightmarish abuse? Since his freshman season in college, when he emerged as a sporting giant, she says she was victimized by his “sexual, physical, emotional and financial” behavior for five years. Jane Doe, as she is documented, says Williamson raped her twice in Beverly Hills — once when “she was tired and wanted to go to sleep” and again when she was “violently raped.”
His attorneys claim the two never dated — “a consensual, casual relationship” ending years ago — and plan to fight back against “extortion attempts” with countersuits. But almost 25, Williamson has lost the entirety of his early NBA prime and might not receive interest from other franchises, regardless of the legal case. He can’t avoid injuries with the New Orleans Pelicans, who wish to trade him and re-launch their program under new operations boss Joe Dumars.
Who wants Zion? The bloated washout of washouts? The woman wants up to $50 million, which could leave him dry. The hope would be that he loses weight, instead of dropping it intermittently and regaining it, with a new team riding his second wave. The Pelicans have tried, sending him to the recent draft lottery. He walked away with the seventh pick and shrugged. Who would have patience to reassess his starpower? The Detroit Pistons? The Los Angeles Lakers, assuming Duke product JJ Redick would proceed and LeBron James and Luka Doncic could stand Williamson? If Zion is waived before July 15, he is guaranteed only $7.9 million next season.
Or, maybe he should be allowed to rot away.
At one point, the woman said Williamson filmed her and threatened to post the nude videos. She said his security guard, armed with a loaded gun, was capable of shooting her in the head and killing her parents. “This is a major undertaking. She knew what he was going to say about her,” said her attorney, Sam Taylor II. “This is a very serious case as reflected in the allegations in the complaint, which are pretty detailed. She genuinely looks forward to her day in court when she can tell a jury of her peers what happened to her and seek justice.”
Is this a woman seeking justice or money? Or is Zion the creep of creeps?
When we think of exceptional college players, we think of Williamson in 2019. At Duke, the certain few usually move on and excel at the next level. Not in this case. Last season, he survived only 30 games with a back injury.
An all-time waste of immense ability, we might say.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.