Zion Williamson has undergone a dramatic physical transformation in recent months.
On ESPN’s “Hoop Collective” podcast, NBA reporters Brian Windhorst and Andrew Lopez spoke about how much more seriously Williamson has been taking his craft since the Pelicans got waxed by the Lakers in the finals of the NBA In-Season Tournament in Las Vegas in December, losing by 44 points.
“The Pelicans are playing great, and I got people in New Orleans telling me that since December, when the In-Season Tournament happened, that Zion Williamson has lost 25 or more pounds,” Windhorst said.
“His performance has been excellent. He’s playing fewer minutes, and that helps as well. But I’ve got people telling me he’s lost 25 pounds. And I don’t mean in the past where people say he’s added muscle and you’re like, ‘Has he?'”
“You can see it,” Lopez said.
“If you go back and look at him in the In-Season Tournament, and you look at him now, he looks completely different,” Windhorst continued. “Frankly, they were embarrassed in Las Vegas. It was really the first on-that-stage moment for him. He’d had other games, like Christmas Day, opening nights, where he hasn’t been available.
“This was his game and this was supposed to be it … and it went completely the wrong way. Since that moment — there was a team meeting around that time as well — things have gone on the up-and-up for him, and looks like a completely different player.”
Lopez added that he’s also heard compliments from the Pelicans organization about Williamson’s “buy-in” and “transformation” to the best conditioning he’s been in since he entered the NBA.
“Physically, he looks different,” Lopez said.
Around the time of the In-Season Tournament, Williamson was the subject of a lot of barbs in the media.
Stephen A. Smith said that chefs in New Orleans were trying to court Williamson to their restaurants because he’d “eat the table” while Shaquille O’Neal used himself early in his NBA career as a reference that Williamson wasn’t taking his condition seriously enough.
The Pelicans are surging, having won seven of their last eight games.
They are 41-26 on the season, and would be ranked fifth in the Western Conference if the playoffs started today.