Zion Williamson’s Minutes Restrictions Are Getting On His Nerves

We often remind ourselves that seeing people play a sport for a couple of hours a day tells us nothing about them and what their lives are like for the other 22.

Take former Duke star Zion Williamson.

He’s had a very strange rookie season. He started out with an unexpected surgery to clean up his knee, missed most of the season, then returned for 19 spectacular games before Covid hit.

Then he really put in time during the pandemic break only to have his momentum broken up again when he had to leave the NBA bubble to attend to a family matter.

So now he’s on minutes restrictions and facing criticism, really, for the first time.

He silenced some of that criticism Monday night with a 23 point outing vs. Memphis. He didn’t shoot well - 9-21, much less efficient than typical - but also had seven boards and five assists. So he’s getting there and said afterwards that he felt “alive” again.