Zion Williamson's fitness, or his lack thereof, has kept the New Orleans Pelicans forward from really taking off as an NBA superstar. Duke's product has always shown the potential to be great, but injuries and weight problems have been causing problems for him since his rookie season.
However, after a recent photo of Zion from his Southern Carolina youth basketball camp surfaced online, many are impressed with his positive body transformation. Ten-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony is one of them.
While Melo lauded Zion during the latest episode of his 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast, the 2013 NBA scoring champion also expressed one concern about his transformation.
"He looked like he was in the best shape of his life," said Anthony. "But it's like, it's not getting in shape, it's remaining in shape. It's remaining fit. Now you going to get there but are you going to keep that going? Are you going to do what you got to do to keep that, you know, being locked in? How are you going to do that? It's a long season, and you really got to put the work in to remain that way. There are no days off."
Zion is coming off his healthiest NBA season
As stated earlier, Williamson has been notorious for missing games due to injury or playing games out of shape. Last season appeared to be different, as Zion took his conditioning seriously and lost 25 pounds after being heavily criticized during the In-Season Tournament .
The No.1 overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft played a career-high 70 regular season games while averaging 22.9 points per game on 57% FG shooting. During the Pelicans' play-in tournament game against the Lakers, he put up 40 points and 11 rebounds before leaving the game with an injury.
"We love comeback stories," added Melo. "We love revenge stories. We love adversity stories, like that's what we all love. We always going to cheer for Zion, always. But him coming back, showing yourself that I'm taking this serious now.I don't have my fun, my first couple of years of doing it however way I wanted to do it. Now it's business. This is the curve."
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KG gave Zion a shoutout after the latest photo
Another all-time great who was impressed with Zion's lean look was Boston Celtics Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett . Like Melo, Garnett has been critical of Williamson in the past, but after seeing his latest photo, KG gave Zion a shoutout during a recent episode of the Truth and The Ticket podcast:
"I'm seeing pictures of Zion, Lord. He looks like he's back in high school—he looks 185," the Hall of Fame power forward told podcast partner Paul Pierce. "Shout out to Zion, you're working, young man. That's what's up. I hope you have a great year ."
It's great to see Zion looking fit and healthy before the start of the season because we have practically seen him open an NBA campaign in tip-top shape. But as Carmelo said, let's hope he keeps it up because that's the tougher thing to do.
Related: "What was going through my mind was just, 'Be calm'" - Zion Williamson on experiencing his NBA debut
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