Zion Williamson was the most-heralded and highly-anticipated rookie to enter the NBA since LeBron James in 2003. His highlight reel dunks, exploding shoes and physics-defying athleticism positioned Williamson to be an instant star.
Williamson did not disappoint in the preseason. He led the Pelicans to a 4-0 start. In those games, the No. 1 overall pick averaged 23.3 points on 71.4 percent shooting, 6.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Officially, Williamson’s preseason scoring average is the highest ever recorded. Throw an asterisk on that because preseason statistics were not officially tracked until 2005.
According to Mike Lynch of The Ringer, a basketball historian and researcher by the name of Todd Spehr has a far more robust database of NBA preseason statistics. According to Spehr’s research, Williamson’s 23.3 point average is tied for the fourth-highest in NBA history – behind Hall of Famers Walt Bellamy (26.2), Wilt Chamberlain (25.8) and David Robinson (24.9).
Sadly the Zion hype train went off the rails when the 6-foot-6, 285-pound freak of nature suffered a torn right meniscus that required surgery. Initially the team announced that Williamson would miss six-to-eight weeks. Fast-forward 13 weeks and Williamson was finally slated to make his official NBA debut Wednesday night (Jan. 22) against the San Antonio Spurs.
Without Williamson, the Pelicans limped to a dismal 7-23 start. However, the team has seemingly turned a corner in recent weeks, going 10-4. That stretch includes victories over likely playoff-bound teams such as Denver, Houston and Utah.
While the city of New Orleans is hoping that Williamson’s return can save its playoff hopes, the league has bigger fish to fry for the rookie. According to the Washington Post, the NBA’s regular-season television ratings have fallen 15 percent.
Some of that decline can be attributed to the insane amount of injuries suffered by the league’s top players. Steph Curry has only played in four games this season due to a broken wrist. Perennial All-Stars Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and John Wall have tallied zero games this season. Other stars such as Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns have missed have missed significant time due to injury and/or load management.
The league and its network partners are hoping that Wiliamson’s return can help to reverse that trend. Wednesday night, ESPN was scheduled to air the matchup between the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets. The matchup featured a player averaging nearly 37 points per game (James Harden) versus the team tied for the second-best record in the West.
Instead, ESPN decided to give those two playoff-bound teams the boot in favor of Williamson’s NBA debut. That’s star power.
Superteams part of the problem?
Though I have long defended players’ rights to join forces in search of NBA championships, I have little doubt that the “superteam” trend has had a role in the league’s plummeting regular-season ratings.
Think about it. Every time NBA superstars join forces they leave behind average teams with extra-regular rosters. It’s like Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, but for basketball. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Interest has skyrocketed in the Lakers after the organization paired together LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Clippers became must-see TV when Leonard and George rode into town (at least when they both suit up on the same night).
Look at those players’ former teams though. Who is checking for a LeBron-less Cleveland Cavaliers’ game outside of Ohio? Even with Chris Paul in Oklahoma City, when is the last time you overheard someone rushing home to catch the Thunder game? Even the defending world champion Toronto Raptors team lost much of its luster after Leonard hopped off the boat and cornrowed his way to L.A.
The biggest problem with superteams is not just that they limit the number of teams who can reasonably expect to compete for a championship. By consolidating the number of teams that house the league’s biggest stars, players have effectively eliminated interest in the other teams.
In order to combat waning interest, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has floated the idea of an in-season tournament and play-in games for the final playoff spots. Those suggestions have received a lukewarm response around the league. According to Yahoo Sports, Silver recently postponed a planned April vote regarding the potential schedule changes.
Unfortunately, an in-season tournament is doomed to fail unless more NBA teams feature bona fide NBA stars. It’s not the responsibility of the players to ensure parity and star distribution throughout the league. That’s the job of Silver and the owners.
So far the league has tried to combat superteams through “Bird rights.” Named after Larry Bird, the rule allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents.
For instance, the Raptors were able to offer Leonard a five-year, $189.6 million contract during the offseason. The most other teams could offer him was a four-year, $140.6 million deal. He ultimately signed a three-year, $103 million deal with the Clippers.
While those numbers appear to be wildly different when you view the total contract amount, once you break them down per year, it’s really not a big difference ($38M, $35.15M and $34.3M respectively).
If the NBA wants to seriously convince superstars to stay with their original teams instead of bolting and buddying up in free agency, it will have to allow teams to resign their own players at a much higher annual salary (say $10M more per year) and limit the cap hit for those of contracts.
Had Leonard been looking at a four-year, $160 million offer from Toronto versus a four-year $120M offer from everyone else, maybe he would still be in Toronto.
Silver and the NBA have much work to do to reverse the trend of falling ratings. Williamson’s return will help. However, he will have to prove that he can stay healthy enough to carry the league’s ratings on his broad shoulders. Meanwhile, Silver will have to broaden his imagination to combat the buddy ball era and convince superstar players that it’s OK to stay.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch online at stlamerican.com and on Twitter @ishcreates.
