It was revealed today that Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans will not be returning to his team this season because of the long, slow rehabilitation of his right foot following surgery.
In some ways, this is good news because fans of the team can stop holding their breath for him this year.
In other ways, it’s obviously very bad because there is also no promise that he will even be ready to play next season.
The truth is that no one knows if and when Williamson will be back.
Two months ago I compared Zion to Greg Oden and #NBATwitter got mad… https://t.co/5ftS4gP9Dq
— Eric Mintzer (@MintSports) March 21, 2022
This latest news has led to a rough, heartbreaking comparison.
Some people are seeing similarities between Williamson’s problems and those of former NBA star Greg Oden.
Is this fair?
Oden’s Woes
Sure enough, the name Greg Oden lit up Twitter soon after news of Williamson’s newest delay was made public.
Oden was selected as the first overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.
The seven-foot center played for Ohio State University before that and showed incredible promise.
Portland saw its future in Oden’s talent.
However, in September of 2007, Oden underwent knee surgery and missed the entire 2007-08 season because of it.
The following season, injuries continued to plague him.
He actually left his first game in the league due to injury after playing 13 minutes without a single point.
He played for a bit in Portland but repeatedly got hurt again and again.
After multiple surgeries and a huge number of missed games, Oden was officially waived by the Trail Blazers in 2012.
The hope is that Williamson will never follow the same path as Oden but there have been some stark, troubling similarities between the two.
Hopefully, those comparisons are soon coming to an end.
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