Stephen A. Smith reports Zion Williamson 'hid food under his bed' with Pelicans checking in on him
Zion Williamson is making the headlines this offseason and for the right reasons. Williamson's pic went viral, where he visibly looked shredded. According to his stepfather, the New Orleans Pelicans star is weighing 281 pounds, and his goal is to hit 272 pounds before the season starts.
For context, Williamson weighed at least 285 pounds during his college career at Duke. The Pelicans forward's efforts have been praised around NBA circles, and analyst Stephen A. Smith was the latest to laud him. Smith also reported an unheard situation with Williamson because of his love for food.
"His problem was food," Smith said about Williamson on his show on Thursday.
"I'm not exaggerating when I tell y'all, you got people in the NBA that says, 'He was hiding food under his bed,' because the Pelicans obviously had people checking up on him to make he tried to engage some level of containment when it came to his diet, and that brother wasn't trying to hear it."
You can click on the video below at 1:07 mark to listen to Smith's report.
Zion Williamson's NBA career has been highlighted by his off-court, conditioning and injuries more than his talent and explosiveness on the court. His conditioning, in particular, has been a hot topic over the past few seasons.
According to numerous reports, Williamson's contract extension also holds a weight stipulation, impacting whether his 2025-26 season salary gets fully guaranteed,
He has to pass six 'weigh-in' checkpoints to have at least 20.0% of his $39,446,090 salary in 2025-26.
New Orleans Pelicans only as good as Zion Williamson's performance and health
The last three seasons have summed up Zion Williamson's importance to the New Orleans Pelicans' success. The Pelicans have been dark horse contenders for the past three years. In 2021-22, they made the playoffs without Williamson (out for the season with a foot injury) and pushed the league-best Phoenix Suns to six games in the first round before losing that first-round series.
In 2022-23, Williamson returned and put New Orleans in the conversation as a potential WCF contender behind a stellar start. He averaged 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists, shooting 60.8%.
However, Williamson played only 29 games. He suffered a hamstring injury in January 2023, ruling him out for the rest of the year. The Pelicans dropped to the Play-In tournament bracket and didn't make it past the round to qualify for the playoffs.
Zion Williamson and the Pelicans probably had their best shot to make some noise in the West playoffs this past year. He played a career-high 70 games, averaging 22.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 5.0 apg, shooting 57.0%. Williamson nearly led the Pelicans to the playoffs as a No. 7 seed with a 40-point burst in the seven vs. eight seed game against the LA Lakers.
However, he suffered a hamstring injury late in the game that blew New Orleans' chances of qualifying as a No. 7 seed, losing the game 110-106. Nevertheless, the Zion-less Pelicans won the eighth seed against the Sacramento Kings, setting up a favorable matchup against the inexperienced OKC Thunder.
Zion Williamson never returned from his injury, though. The Pelicans wound up getting swept in that first-round series, once again being held back by Williamson's injury absence.