“He Never Makes It to the Starting Gate”: Snubbing 58 NBA Games Despite Hype, One of Zion Williamson’s First Coaches Recalls the “Strangest Season”

The basketball story of Zion Williamson is one of the most strange in NBA history. The New Orleans Pelicans Forward became a viral sensation before he even entered the league. His athletic highlights at Duke made him one of the most popular college athletes. Many deemed Zion the Next Big Thing. His hype before entering the NBA was like that of LeBron James in 2003. After being selected first in the 2019 NBA draft, the Pelicans had high hopes for the 6’6” forward.

But, as soon as Zion entered the NBA, his young career was plagued by injuries. From a historic NBA debut, he went on to miss 58 games in his debut season. Now, one of Zion’s first coaches recalls the strangest season in Pelicans history.

Zion Williamson’s former coach recalls his strange debut season

Zion Williamson’s debut season in the NBA was also the year COVID shut down all operations in the NBA. Popularly known as the Bubble Season, the 2019-20 season was strange for the New Orleans Pelicans in more ways than one. Apart from dealing with a global pandemic, the Pelicans also dealt with one of the most strange debut seasons in league history.

Zion’s former Pelicans coach, Chris Finch, was a guest on JJ Redick and Tom Alter’s Old Man & The Three podcast. He talked about the one-of-a-kind “bubble season”.

Redick asked the former coach about the series of events that took place in Zion Williamson’s debut season. Chris reminisced about Zion’s dominant performance in the pre-season. “You remembered what Zion looked like in the pre-season right,” he asked.

The current Timberwolves Head Coach believed they found something great in the young player. But Zion hardly played any games in his first season due to injury. “He never makes it to the starting gate,” added Finch, talking about the two-time All-Star’s debut season.

Zion Williamson had a confusing NBA debut

JJ Redick and Chris Finch also talked about Zion’s NBA debut, which came after Pelicans’ 13-game losing streak. The Pelicans forward made his debut in January 2020 against the San Antonio Spurs. With nine minutes remaining in the game and the Pelicans trailing by eight points, Zion re-entered the game on a minute restriction.

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He made an instant impact on the match, hitting four threes in four attempts. Zion single-handedly cut the lead down to one point, scoring 22 points in his debut. Unfortunately, Zion had to be subbed out of the game because of his minute restriction, and the Pelicans ended up losing the game. That was one of the most confusing NBA debuts in history because of many reasons. Zion was perfect from the three-point line in his debut, but he has only hit 19 more three-pointers since then.

Whenever Zion is on the floor, the Pelicans look like a totally different team because of how dominant Williamson is. Unfortunately, he is not on the court that often. After missing a majority of his career games, fans hope to see the Pelicans’ forward back on the floor completely healthy. That being said, fans will always remember Zion’s strange debut season for some or the other reason.

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