David Griffin On Zion’s Status After Summer League Injury

Pelicans exec David Griffin weighed in on shutting Zion Williamson down following his knee injury in Summer League play and basically said that, given his current conditioning, he might as well take a break and focus on getting in better shape.

He also said that he wasn’t too worried about it because Williamson “wants to be great” and is already putting in work.

In fairness to the kid, he’s been pretty busy since school ended. Between the draft, negotiations with various people and businesses, award ceremonies and the draft, it’s probably the busiest he’s ever been.

He’ll learn to balance that stuff soon enough but if he’s smart he’d get in touch with Charles Barkley and talk to him about his experiences.

Barkley showed up in Philly weighing closer to 300 and soon Moses Malone took him aside and told him to lose the caboose if he wanted to stick around. Barkley did and became a legend.

In Williamson’s case, his unique body type will impose some realities on him. He saw this at Duke when the training staff reportedly told him not to worry too much about getting stronger in the weightroom but to work in other ways. His challenge will always be weight. If he eats wisely and works hard, he’ll be impossible to deal with on the court.

So after talking to Barkley, his next call should be to a chef/nutritionist who can tweak his body that way.