LAKE GOOD VIEW, Fla. – New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Wiliamson will play thursday the team’s full-season resumption against Utah Jazz at HP Field House.
After Williamson finished a pre-adjustment warm-up, the Pelicans decided that he too can start and play in limited minutes.
After Wednesday’s practice, Pelicans coach Alvin Gencheck called Williamson’s prestige “a game-time decision.” Williamson missed pelican’s 3 scrums in his nine-day absence to attend what he called “an urgent circle of family affairs.” He then spent four days in quarantine under the league’s fitness and defense protocols for players who can leave campus for non-public reasons. Williamson also had to achieve negative testing on a daily basis for COVID-19.
The pelicans treated Williamson carefully beyond the season, but for other reasons. After missing the first four games of a surgical friend who repaired his right knee, Williamson took two and five minutes in his first five games. Pelicans became best friends with 10 games in February (30.6) and five games in March (33) before the NBA stopped operations due to the coronavirus outbreak.
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