The NBA season, which begins when the trees are still lit by October flame and ends roughly in the year Zager and Evans made famous ("2525"), got underway last night. Well, kinda.
I mean, there were games and all. But the guy everyone wants to see was nowhere to be seen, on account of he's already hurt.
That would be New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson, who blew his meniscus in the last days of some weird superfluous creature the NBA calls The Preseason, and is on the shelf for the next six to eight weeks. In the four preseason "games" he played, Zion was everything we were told he would be, averaging 23 points, six rebounds and two assists in just 27 minutes a night. He shot an absurd 71 percent, mainly because he proved nearly unstoppable in getting to the rim.
If you watched him and didn't immediately think "a young LeBron James," you're not old enough to remember a young LeBron James.
On the other hand ...
On the other hand, it was The Preseason.
Which means the "games" were not, shall we say, indicative. In other words, no one was playing regular season defense, or even October regular season defense. They were playing preseason defense, which is NBA-ese for "Isn't the season long enough without this bull****?"
The answer to that, especially if you're Zion Williamson, is an emphatic "Yes."
Which is to say, what an utter waste, the NBA's most electric new draw hurting himself in a preseason game. Without that game, or The Preseason in general, he gives the Association a boffo curtain raiser. Now it'll be December before the curtain raiser is unveiled.
Just in time for Christmas, other words. I guess there's that.
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