The official NBA debut of No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson has been set and his first game with the New Orleans Pelicans will be seen in front of a nationally-televised audience.
The Pelicans announced on Friday that the Jan. 22 home game against the San Antonio Spurs will be seen on ESPN starting with a new tip-off time of 9:30 p.m. ET. Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said on Wednesday that the anticipated debut of Williamson will happen on Wednesday against the Spurs.
Williamson has made progress in his recovery from knee surgery in recent weeks and has been close to returning to the court. He has been practicing with the Pelicans recently and has participated in various on-court drills. Williamson has taken part in shootaround with the team and has even gone through pre-game warmups, as well.
The last game Williamson played in the preseason was against the Spurs, which is apparently when he initially suffered his knee injury. Williamson has said that he cannot pinpoint when exactly the injury happened but began to experience discomfort following that contest against the Spurs on Oct. 13.
His workload for his debut could be minimal, at best.
Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry has said the team will not overload him once he returns and that he will be on a heavy minutes restriction. Williamson will come off of the bench to start off and he will not play in back-to-back games, although the Pelicans have no such games until March.
With ESPN set to broadcast his debut, the Pelicans will add another nationally-televised game to their schedule. The team was rewarded a franchise-record 30 appearances on national TV and will play six of their next nine games on either ABC, ESPN or TNT.
The NBA debut of Williamson is just within reach now as the collective basketball community braces for perhaps the most anticipated debut since LeBron James.
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