After sitting out for months with an injured knee, Zion Williamson is finally going to make his NBA debut against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, January 22nd.
TV networks bet big on the Pelicans to start the season, assuming that Williamson would be in the lineup to draw eyeballs. Williamson’s debut was supposed to be on October 22 against the Raptors to open the regular season against the NBA champions but, of course, he was injured. When the NBA schedule was revealed, the Pelicans were scheduled to play a franchise-record 30 games on national TV.
There was only one problem, though. Zion’s return game against the Spurs wasn’t slated to be on national TV. ESPN decided to flex the Pelicans game in their Wednesday primetime slot in favor of a matchup between the Nuggets and the Rockets.
ESPN is altering its schedule, televising Spurs at Pelicans next Wednesday (instead of Nuggets at Rockets) so everyone can see Zion’s debut…
— Scott Agness (@ScottAgness) January 17, 2020
This is an…interesting decision. And one that’s sure to get a bunch of Nuggets and Rockets fans riled up. They’re swapping out two surefire playoff teams who could play each other in May for two teams who are scratching and clawing for the 8th seed.
But whatever. It’s Zion. He’s great and so are his dunks. That’s what we’re here for. Not James Harden’s floppy buckets or to yell at Nikola Jokic for not shooting enough until the 3rd quarter.
This is definitely the right choice.
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