Zion Williamson To Miss Weeks After Knee Surgery; Pelicans Dealing With Downside Of Hype Machine

Coaching and team depth is crucial. It allows the New Orleans Saints to win without Drew Brees. It is yet to be known how long the New Orleans Pelicans will have to show they can win without Zion Williamson. Williamson underwent successful arthroscopic surgery today fix a torn right lateral meniscus. Dr. James Folk performed the surgery with help from Pelicans Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Misty Suri. Williamson will be out six to eight weeks.

Two recent statements by the team and the ensuing social media firestorm shows that Zion's hype is not always going to be big smiles and dunks to match. First, the New Orleans Pelicans issued a short statement that "forward Zion Williamson is listed as out with right knee soreness for the team's final preseason game against the Knicks. He did not travel with the team to New York today and remained in New Orleans to undergo further testing and evaluation at Ochsner Sports Medicine. Further updates will be forthcoming when available."

This release lacked the same forthcoming nature of David Griffin's NBA Summer League statement following Williamson's slight knee knock injury shutdown. He was far from being in game shape at the time and every Summer League somebody was gunning for him. Risking a generational fortune in Las Vegas was never the plan for David Griffin. Other tourists have other gambling motives.

He has been doing the heavy lifting all preseason, leading the team in minutes played and carrying the media workload at every turn. Williamson was seen doing drills a day before the statement was released. Either he suffered the injury in a practice late in the week or was trying to play through the injury.

Williamson iced his knees after the San Antonio game on October 13. Of course, most starters sat out at least one preseason game. Now with a surgery under his belt, Williamson's minutes will have to be watched more carefully.

Gentry got an introductory course in load management last season, though somewhat involuntarily. Regarding the team's load management and rest strategy Gentry said, "I really haven't paid attention to who is resting and who is not resting. And I never do during the season. We got enough to worry about with our team, I don't really know and care about who is resting and who is not. I don't know about load management. I'm the old guy so I'm just learning about load management."

That is a tough comment to hear for Pelicans fans. Williamson logged 31 minutes against San Antonio. He started the season with 28 minutes in Atlanta. Chicago got to watch Williamson work for 27 minutes. He only played 23 minutes in New Orleans. Now the process of getting Williamson ready for the regular season takes a different turn.

The team released the Williamson injury report statement on October 17, one day before the final preseason game in New York. Williamson was seen practicing just one day before. Some of Williamson's on-court action was included in the background of NBA app video clip. Over he weekend, playing through the soreness was ruled out as an option.

It was a big weekend for Williamson. He officially announced a five-year deal with Mountain Dew that same Friday. A refurbished court in Spartanburg, SC was unveiled. There was a Dare to Dew event held in New Orleans on Saturday with Williamson's face featured on most promotional material. He was hard to track down, but that was expected even without the surgery.

Williamson has taken a few tumbles this preseason with his knees serving and impact points on more than a couple. Still, there were few real bumps in the road to stardom. He had proven to be the star everyone imagined. Injury concerns were one of the biggest obstacles and those fears have been fully realized.

Griffin has been transparent since being hired. For the first time in franchise history, the whole Pelicans community truly feels part of a sporting family wholly separated from not only football but history. The energy this summer was akin to an enthusiastic expansion team with real talent.

The handling of Williamson's injury status has left many feeling a bit more reluctant to trust the team than they were a week ago. The bad injury voodoo still permeates from the Pelicans's nest. It will take more than one offseason for the fans to shake that cursed franchise feeling.

The hype train has left several fans at the station. Many are anxious they are out of the money spent to get tickets and flights to games. The basketball world has been waiting months if not years to see Williamson do a windmill dunk on an NBA court. Local fans wanted to watch him dominate the most anticipated home opener in New Orleans since the Gleason Game. Yet on the day before the season starts, most do not know for certain the date of Williamson's expected debut.

The home opener against the Dallas Mavericks will be less electric without Zion, sure. Should there be any real worries, Aaron Nelson is here to guide Williamson through the toughest growing pains of NBA life. For a fanbase so worried about injuries, the uproar over being overly cautious is a touch ironic. It is more important for Williamson to enter his second season healthy, not risk further injury to show out in his second regular-season game.

Pelicans trainers will work with Williamson on balance and agility drills throughout the season. Just watching his pregame ball handling work is a lesson in explosive balance holding steady. Steph Curry is famous for those same sessions and also had to change some of his mechanics to negate injury concerns. Williamson will be force to focus on his core fundamentals for a few weeks for the same reason.

The hype surrounding Zion has been ridiculous for a while now. He did nothing to calm the crowd during his preseason performances. And they were performances. Williamson is an entertainer, and artist merely using basketball as his medium. The Pelicans tried to paint a vague picture for some reason, and it has turned out a slight mess. The slight stain of an injury concern will be considered part of the charming character because those injury concerns are all too real now.

The scrutiny on Williamson just jumps to another level. Reactions to Williamson's knee surgery far exceed the concern expressed over Anthony Davis having an MRI last week. That could be due to Williamson being seen an indestructible as much as Davis reputation for always missing parts of games for small nicks.

Fear not Pelicans fans, this will be a season to remember even should Williamson only play in 60 games. The core group will need couple months to create a team identity through their on-court chemistry and locker room dynamics. Williamson will be a big part of that process.

The team's front office will have to learn how to balance the fans' wildly optimistic expectations with the creeping thought that one bad landing after a highlight dunk could sour multiple seasons. Any statement issued will be subject to conspiracy level speculation and conjecture. The last few days have proven as much.

That's life with Williamson and his surrounding hype, for better or for worse. Still, until he takes the court everyone is left waiting. We are all waiting for one team statement. That one statement would put the Zion Williamson hype train back on positive tracks. In fact, it is likely the only statement that would stop the speculation.

It is the release of a starting linuep with Zion Williamson listed for the New Orleans Pelicans.