New Orleans — I’ll start this out with a blind quiz. Player A played 13 games in April, and player B played 14 games in April via StatMuse.
Player A: 27.5 points per game, 2.4 assists, 9.1 rebounds, 47.7 field goal percentage.
Player B: 28.2 points per game, 3.9 assists, 7.2 rebounds, 58.4 field goal percentage.
Both numbers are very similar and it’s clear both players were on the top of their game during this time. Player A is Joel Embiid in the month leading up to him finishing 3rd in NBA MVP voting. Player B is a 20-year-old Zion Williamson who has arguably better numbers than an MVP candidate but has been recently called a bust by the basketball world.
It has been 311 days since the last time we saw Williamson play in an NBA game and during that time people seemed to forget just how great he is at basketball, so allow me to remind you.
Destroying the Bust Comparisons
Uncut Hoops/John Michael Augustine
The first thing I want to clear up is that Williamson is not even remotely close to the busts people are comparing him to. I will not individually call any reports out because we are a positive organization at Tunnel Vision Sports.
I have seen people compare Williamson to Greg Oden which baffles my mind. People believe Williamson and Oden are similar because both have had injury troubles early in their careers. No one decides to compare him to Blake Griffin who missed his first season due to injury, or Embiid who missed his first two seasons to a foot injury, no they jump straight to Oden or Anthony Bennett.
To show a bit of perspective Greg Oden spent six years in the NBA. During this span, Oden from time-to-time displayed flashes of greatness. However, due to injuries, his career was cut short, and he scored 840 points during his time in the NBA according to StatMuse.
Anthony Bennett has also received Williamson comparisons as of late mainly because of their similar body type. According to NBA.com Bennett is 6 feet 8 inches tall at 235 pounds. Williamson is 6 feet 7 inches at 280 pounds.
Both players are in that awkward spot where they are not mobile enough to play small forward but don’t seem big enough to play power forward. Because of this, Bennett struggled, and the former first overall pick only played four seasons in the NBA scoring a career total of 658 points.
In a Class of His Own
So how do these two compare to Williamson? Well, the short answer is that they don’t, not even a little bit. According to StatMuse in a 23-game span last season, Williamson scored 669 points, already eclipsing Bennett’s entire career points.
To take it even further, Williamson was on a scoring tear during that period. During a span of just over two months, Williamson outscored Oden’s career output with 856 points.
When you combine Oden and Bennett’s career points which equate to 10 years of their career it equals 1,498 points. Williamson scored 1,647 points in his sophomore season alone. To hear Williamson’s name compared to fellow busts blows my mind because as you can see his numbers put him in a separate class.
Williamson Compared to Young Legends
Noah Graham/ Scott Cunningham/ Adam Pantozzi
What Williamson accomplished as a 20-year-old sophomore was nothing short of legendary. However, in terms of scoring, he isn’t alone, he has elite company to join him.
LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Williamson are the only players in NBA history to average 27 PPG at the age of 20. I see where people could potentially be going.
Another argument with Williamson’s statistics is that people question how many games he has played due to injury. That could be a fair assessment because the less a player plays the more likely their averages per game are inflated due to the short sample size. However, that is not the case with Williamson.
That is because while Williamson did not play the entire season, every time he did, we saw him break records held by a young Doncic and James. For example, there is a streak to see how many games in a row a player under the age of 21 can score over 20 points.
According to ESPN James held the record for 13 years with 20 games in a row. Eventually, Doncic tied that record finishing with 20 as well. Williamson did not only break the record but left a gap between himself James and Doncic by finishing with 26 games last season.
During this historic run, the Dallas Mavericks coach at the time, Rick Carlisle, had the highest praise for Williamson stating,
“He’s an unusual force and obviously a great player… it presents huge challenges for the defense and for officials,” “He is just creating collisions out there. This is a Shaquille O’Neal-type force of nature with a point guard skill set.” per Brad Botkin CBS Sports.
Williamson Compared to NBA Legends
When many people think of the most dominant player in NBA history, prime Shaq always ends up being in the conversation. What made O’Neal so special during his peak in the early 2000s was how unguardable he was at the rim.
I am sure we have all seen the highlights of O’Neal just annihilating some poor helpless defender.
While O’Neal terrorized the NBA for many years, his prime had to be during his only MVP year which took place for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000-2001 season. After years of crafting and refining his post moves to perfection O’Neal put up one of the most efficient scoring seasons in NBA history scoring 20 or more points, shooting over 50% from the field for 26 games in a row.
For perspective, according to ESPN Stats and Info, since the shot clock era, only four players have had 15 consecutive games or more scoring 20 points shooting over 50% from the field.
Karl Malone, Wilt Chamberlain, O’Neal during his MVP season, and a 20-year-old Williamson during his first full season in the NBA.
Williamson could have stopped at 15 and still achieved something special in NBA history. Although it did not end there for him, he continued his incredible scoring output and surpassed Malone and Chamberlain. Williamson finished with 26 consecutive games of 20 points or more shooting over 50% from the field tying the record with O’Neal.
Putting the Team First
The next game he fell short scoring only 16 points and was not able to break the record. However, after the streak was over Williamson did not cool off, he played arguably his best basketball of the year.
Over the next two games, Williamson averaged 37.5 PPG, 12 rebounds, and six assists on 67% shooting from the field. He also would never score less than 20 points in a game for the remainder of the year.
However, following this incredible scoring output Williamson made it clear that even though he was now one of the most efficient scorers of all time, he still wanted to put his team’s needs first.
“Since I have the ball in my hands a lot and my coach and teammates trust me, I could just shoot a lot and get 20 points, but my teammates and coaches know that’s not the game I want to play,” Williamson said after the game, via the Associated Press. “I want to get everybody involved and hunt for the best shot.” Per Sam Marsdale.
Between his humble attitude and relentless ability to score I think I speak for everyone when I say I am excited for Williamson to return to the game of basketball, no matter how long the wait is.
