Zion is back, happy and on a t...

NEW YORK — It started behind the Pelicans’ bench, throughout New Orleans’ surprise postseason run this spring. There, above the chain hanging from Zion Williamson’s strapping neck, was that familiar rise of his bulbous cheeks. After the knee surgery, the broken finger, the countless setbacks from a fractured right foot, after playing only 85 games in his first three seasons, Williamson started smiling again. And here he was Wednesday, cheesing from ear to ear with that giant hoop sparkling under his left lobe, having dropped a casual 25 points in the Pelicans’ 103-108 opening night drubbing of the Brooklyn Nets — the All-Star forward’s resounding season debut. Forward Larry Nance asked aloud when New Orleans’ first bus was leaving the bowels of Barclays Center, and a voice in the distance announced only 10 minutes stood before its scheduled departure time.

“You’re not making it!” Williamson boomed. “There’s no way you’re making it!”

Duke coaches saw this magnetism throughout his freshman season in Durham, North Carolina. Sure, there were the rim-rattling dunks and the jaw-dropping blocks. But the teenager with the spotlight permanently affixed to his back found clever ways to deflect its rays onto others in his orbit. He’d throw his arm around Blue Devils walk-on Mike Buckmire, yanking the benchwarmer right alongside him at media sessions, grinning with his creative circumvention of all the attention. That joy returning to Williamson’s face, and rushing through New Orleans’ franchise, is still no small feat. It’s almost surreal how the proverbial switch has been flipped and set the superstar aglow. Only a year ago, Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin was announcing Williamson’s devastating foot injury suffered that offseason, before Williamson missed the 2021-22 opener and then the entire campaign that followed. New Orleans stumbled out of the gate, and then stumbled again, losing 12 of its first 13 games. The whispers about Griffin’s job security, about the chasm that stood between Williamson and a contract extension with the small-market afterthought to New Orleans’ neighboring Saints, were echoing loudly around rival front offices.

When the national anthem belted throughout Barclays Center, Williamson kept looking at Weatherspoon once again. They were months and miles away from those tears they shed. Williamson found the eyes of the coach who’s become more like a big sister, underneath all the stadium noise, and simply uttered, “Look how God work. It’s crazy.” The crowd roared as the Nets’ starting lineup was announced. Williamson bobbed his head as an introduction video on the jumbotron blared “Public Service Announcement” from Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z. He’d forgotten the allure of inside an arena, the stage being set. 

“Those subtle things, I’m like, this is why I love the game,” Williamson said. “This is why I wanted to be a part of something like this.”