Zion Williamson Had A Tough Year And Social Media Didn’t Help

You know how people were all over Zion Williamson last year? He was mostly out of circulation and didn’t say much, but apparently, he noticed. Given his youth, obviously he’s grown up with social media and the firehose of attention, which was once entirely positive or nearly so, turned quite negative, and it really bothered him. Here’s what he told SLAM:

“It’s been a lot. I can sit here and explain it, but nobody will really be able to feel it the way I did. My foot was broken and I couldn’t magically heal it. It hurt, because I love the game of basketball. But because of it I was experiencing hate and pain from people I don’t know every day, and it started to wear on me.”

It would wear on anyone. Who wants do deal with that?

We’re not fans of Ed Sheeran, but a little while back he talked about how he avoided social media because he realized it was making him miserable. It’s a great sign of emotional intelligence when you think about it. We hate that Williamson had to deal with so much BS, but one thing he could earn, as we all should, is sometimes it’s just healthier to turn it off.