New Orleans Pelicans point guard Jose Alvarado is defending Zion Williamson amid recent criticism of the two-time All-Star’s play on the court.
Speaking to reporters about the noise around Williamson, Alvarado said “f–k all that” negativity being directed toward him.
“He’s human,” Alvarado added. “He heard all that noise about that game in L.A. One thing about it: We can get on him. But the whole world, they trying to push him to be great. Obviously, we appreciate that. But f–k all that negative towards him. He’s a human being.”
While there’s often been criticism around Williamson throughout his NBA career, the tenor of it changed in the wake of New Orleans’ 133-89 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA In-Season Tournament semifinal on Dec. 7.
Williamson scored 13 points and went 1-of-6 from the free-throw line in 26 minutes against the Lakers.
After the game, Shaquille O’Neal was critical of Williamson’s conditioning on TNT’s Inside the NBA (h/t Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post) by drawing a parallel with his own career.
“I couldn’t do it, because I wasn’t working as hard as I thought I was,” O’Neal said before talking about how Williamson wasn’t running hard. “I had the same problem my first and second year. I thought I was running hard. Charles [Barkley] has talked about this. Because my talent’s going to get me 20 [points]. When I started getting to 30-40, it’s because I started doing certain things.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith went much harder on Williamson’s conditioning by talking about how much the Pelicans big man eats.
“I’m not exaggerating, I’m quoting people. You got chefs in New Orleans who love him,” Smith said on Monday’s episode of First Take. “They’re looking for him. Every chef there wants to meet him… The word out on Zion Williamson is that he’ll eat the table.”
Williamson has rebounded from that poor outing. He scored a season-high 36 points on 13-of-17 shooting in Monday’s 121-107 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After sitting out against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, Williamson put up a double-double in a 112-107 win over the Charlotte Hornets yesterday.
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