We are one step closer to seeing Zion Williamson on the basketball court again.
According to Shams Charania and Will Guillory of The Athletic, Williamson has been cleared to start playing basketball and will return to the New Orleans Pelicans.
This is great news for Williamson, the Pelicans, and the fans. Just a few weeks ago, it became known that Zion might need a second operation. Now, just like that, he’s back on track to possibly appear in a game before the end of the season. And with the Pels rushing onto the field of play in recent days, news of Williamson’s possible return is just in time.
Zion dropped out last year
Williamson has not appeared in an NBA game since May 4, 2021. Right before the summer league in the off-season, Williamson broke his leg, requiring surgery. The Pelicans reported this towards the end of September 2021 and said they hoped he would return in time for the regular season. He didn’t make it back in time, but he made progress. By mid-November, he was cleared for one-on-one training, and by the end of the month, full basketball activity.
The Pelicans’ Zion Williamson was reportedly cleared to play basketball after recovering a broken leg for about eight months. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
But that’s when Zion stopped moving forward and started moving backward. Just five days after he was cleared for full basketball activity, he felt pain in his surgically repaired right leg. The soreness persisted and he was suspended from all basketball activities. He was eventually stabbed in the leg, but by early January, the Pelicans claimed that Zion wasn’t even in rehab with the team—he was in rehab in Portland, Oregon while still under the team’s care.
We then stopped hearing from Williamson for a while, although we learned that he and CJ McCollum, Pels’ newest acquisition, hadn’t even spoken since he joined the team. We also learned that Williamson’s foot is still not healing. Near the end of February, Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that he might need a second operation on his right leg, which would almost certainly put him out of action for the rest of the season.
That’s why Saturday’s news was such a long-awaited and unexpected surprise. With bad luck after bad luck, no one expected to see Zion at all this season, so it’s exciting to know that he’s closer than ever to a comeback. It may take a while for Williamson to shake off the rust and get back up to speed, but this version of Zion is way better than the injured Zion.