from college to nba, As long as we have been watching Zion Williamson play basketball, he has never had a season that was not affected by injury. Since then completed a year at duke to his Four Seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, The league’s most exciting player still hasn’t been able to show off his skills for 82 games. Although Williamson’s body is cleared to play, that doesn’t mean his mind is ready. Knowing yourself is always a good thing. It’s even better if you’ve gotten to a place where you can talk about it.
“Physically I’m fine, now it’s just a matter of when I feel like Zion,” he told reporters earlier this week. “I know the environment I will be entering based on the experience of the playoffs. So now it’s just a matter of when I feel like Zion.
He said, “I don’t think there are any specific criteria for being a Zionist.” “It’s just the kind of thing, you know, when I feel myself. Just feeling like myself and knowing that I can go out there and make a big impact for my team.
If Zion doesn’t feel like Zion, what’s the point of putting Zion on the floor?
He doesn’t have one, despite having a net worth of $193 million.
“It’s a little bit of a mental battle, because you know when I get excited again [the injury] Back in February, it was tough,” Williamson said. “So when I go to do some moves, it’s hesitation. Sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it does. And I understand the magnitude of these games and I don’t want to hesitate out there or do anything that could reflect poorly on my team.
Have you ever seen a coach tell a player to “put his mind on the game”? well, williamson just told us It is not his. And it’s not like we haven’t seen it before. Parts of our society have evolved to the point where people are more understanding about mental health.
and then on the other side
He has lost 169 games in his career [four-year] career and has not played in at least 40 percent of his games,” Stephen A. Smith said recently on ESPN take first,
“You can’t make a statement like, ‘Oh, when I feel like Zion.’
“The players taught us a long time ago, ‘We never feel like we’re at 100 percent. Sometimes we don’t feel our freshest, best self.
“I don’t turn (on tour). I do a double take-out, which is my signature move on the floor. It never impressed me. But everything else is so heavy, and I see girls do that, and it’s not the same,” Simone Biles told the world on NBC’s “Today” show after she sat out the competition in 2021, back on NBC’s “Today” show. startled. abouttwisty— a sort of mental block that some gymnasts can suffer from.
“But twirls, once I’m back, will be back. But I’m still too scared to do gymnastics.”
In Williamson’s case, he had a chance to show his game in the event of a win that turned out to be the season finale at the New Orleans Pelicans. For Biles, it was a chance for the greatest gymnast of all time to add even more accomplishments to her resume. And in the case of Giannis Antetokounmpo, he had just paid millions and was still almost ready to give it all.
“In 2020, I was ready to walk away from the game. I had that conversation – yes – with the front office, thE Bucks Star recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
“And, you know, pretty much in general, everybody’s looking at me like I’m crazy. ‘You just signed the biggest contract in NBA history — a five-year, $228 million supermax contract extension — and You want to get away from the game and all that money…?’
“Mannan, you can take that money and put it in your…
“But. I don’t care about that. I care about pleasure. I’m a happy person,” he said. “My father had nothing; he had us. He was the richest man on earth because his children He had a beautiful family; he had nothing. It – to me – doesn’t make sense.
you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes
According to Johns HopkinsIn the United States, one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder each year, while approximately 9.5 percent of American adults suffer from a depressive illness each year. Those percentages include the professional athletes we see on TV. This is why I used his quotes more than my own words in this column, because his experiences and reasons needed to be heard more than anything I could write.
So the next time you’re upset that an athlete called it quits early, your over/under bet on a game was affected by someone dropping out for “personal reasons,” or you think Zion Williamson should Should play because you know his mind and body are better than his, remember what you read today. Just because athletes can jump higher than us, doesn’t mean they’re better at climbing over life’s obstacles.