As the NBA embarks on the most unique experiment in the league’s 74-year history, its global spotlight doesn’t shine exclusively on familiar colors.
It’s not just the legacy brands like the Los Angeles Lakers or Boston Celtics taking center stage inside the Walt Disney World bubble. Despite their dozens of championships, legions of fans and status as legitimate NBA Finals threats, the Lakers, Celtics and others have to wait.
Instead, the league is using its grand reopening to highlight a 20-year old rookie, playing in his 20th career game. And it takes just four letters to explain why.
Z-I-O-N.
Yup. That’s why the New Orleans Pelicans are basking under the sporting world’s gaze at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, tipping off against the Utah Jazz, mercifully ending a pandemic-induced 141-day work stoppage when they take the floor.
For much of the fall and winter, Derrick Favors wasn’t in a good place. In November, the Pelicans’ starting center took two weeks off to mourn…
And after four months of teeth-gnashing and obstacle-hurdling to pull off an unprecedented logistical jigsaw puzzle, the NBA drops the curtain featuring the franchise in its second-smallest media market.
It's the franchise with two meager playoff series wins on its 19-year résumé, carrying one of the NBA’s lowest-registering name brands and a mediocre 28-36 record this season. It's the same team that opened the 2019-20 season — doesn’t that seem like an eternity ago? — in the same marquee TNT broadcast slot.
And yet there’s no one second-guessing the Pelicans’ premiere placement. Why?
It’s because they have Zion Williamson. And no one else does.
For broadcasters and NBA officials alike, it supersedes all else.
Critics can howl about Williamson’s unpolished and unproven game, but no one can make the case he isn’t relevant. In a league driven by stars more than teams, Zion is capable of making once-anonymous New Orleans among the NBA’s most appealing draws.
And that’s without doing much, yet.
The 20-year-old rookie played just 19 of the Pelicans’ first 64 games. He isn’t going to win Rookie of the Year honors, and he missed all three bubble scrimmages because of undisclosed family issues, leaving questions about his readiness for Thursday’s opener.
The New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz restart their regular seasons against one another, and the two teams are discussing the possibility of …
Yet there’s no wondering if he’s the main attraction for the restart at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. Despite all the MVPs and championship diamonds shining around the Disney campus, the crosshairs of fascination fixate on Zion — at least until the playoffs begin.
It’s been the case since his lone season at Duke captured the nation’s attention, when he displayed a unique ability to captivate an audience’s curiosity without yet proving much at the NBA level. It’s a quality not seen since LeBron James’ teenage years, and even an injury-marred rookie season couldn’t slow the momentum.
And you’re forgiven for all of this feeling normalized by now. Over the past year, every time the Pelicans are shoved into the spotlight, we knowingly shrug and say, “That’s Zion.”
But it’s notable to recognize how unique Williamson’s draw is in this particularly unparalleled moment. And getting this opening-game slot is just the latest example.
In fact, the entire restart apparatus, complete with 22 teams and an eight-game regular-season finish, was fueled by the desire to get Zion on more screens.
To JJ Redick, Black lives matter way more than his personal playoff streak.
The play-in model — allowing the No. 9 seed to get an opportunity to bounce the No. 8 seed out of the playoffs by beating them in back-to-back games — is an almost-too-obvious grasp at adding meaningful stakes to Zion’s outings.
Who else, besides LeBron, carries this kind of drawing power?
Once again, keep in mind this isn’t a contender. The Pelicans are currently 10th place in the Western Conference.
Yet at least five of the Pelicans’ eight games in the bubble are airing on TNT, ESPN or ABC (the finale is still undecided). That’s more time on those networks than most 82-game seasons during the New Orleans eras of Baron Davis, Chris Paul and Anthony Davis.
Let’s say it again. This isn’t normal.
It’s not just the Pelicans and the city of New Orleans relying on Zion’s mammoth star power. The NBA as a whole is counting on him, too.
So, how can Williamson meet those kinds of outsized expectations when the games actually count again?
Is it enough for Zion to just pick up where he left off, averaging 23.6 points in 30 minutes per game, overpowering grown men in the paint and effectively running the floor to spark the Pelicans’ offense? Is it just about highlights and production? Or does the hype already require that Zion must match it with meaningful wins in pressure situations?
For what it’s worth, Zion successfully shrugged off the enormous amount of attention thus far, carrying most of it in stride. His stardom filled visiting arenas across the league. He already knows everything he does and says merits attention on debate shows and social media feeds.
“In a weird way, I haven't felt like a teenager in a long time,” Williamson said upon turning 20 earlier this month, “so I feel like it's not going to be anything different.”
But even as we’ve gotten used to Zion’s outsized presence, this feels a bit different. The stakes are more cut and dried, the universal zeal to see him reach the playoffs and make an impact are churning under the surface.
Just by being himself, he has merited the attention. Now, it’s time to see whether he’s already in a position to carry his team past Instagram highlights and into the postseason.
We already know everyone will be watching.
