Zion Williamson, #1, New Orleans Pelicans, (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
The Pelicans announced that Zion Williamson has left the bubble in Orlando to attend to an urgent family matter.
The Pelicans have tweeted that star rookie Zion Williamson has left the bubble in Orlando. The press release stated:
Zion Williamson departed Orlando this morning to attend to an urgent family medical matter. He intends to rejoin the team in Orlando for the NBA restart at a later date.
“We fully support Zion’s decision to leave the NBA campus to be with his family,” said Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin. “Out of respect for the Williamson family, we will have no further comment at this time.”
At this time, there are no further details on the “urgent family medical matter” but it must be fairly serious and unexpected to pull Williamson out of the NBA bubble. Here’s hoping it gets resolved quickly with everyone happy and healthy.
What would it take for Zion Williamson to rejoin the Pelicans?
The Pelicans are set to resume the regular season on July 30 against the Utah Jazz and finish their eight-game slate on Aug. 13 against the Magic. Unless they can pass the Trail Blazers in the standings, pull to within four games of the Grizzlies and then beat Memphis twice (something they have a roughly 28 percent chance of doing), that will be it for their season.
For Williamson to rejoin the team whenever this family matter is resolved, he will need to first test negative for COVID-19 and then travel to Orlando to go through another 10-day quarantine. At the end of that period, he’ll need two negative tests at least 24 hours apart before he’s able to play. Even if he’s ready to return fairly quickly, that protocol timeline will almost certainly keep him out of several games and possibly all of them.
The Pelicans began the season without Williamson, as he recovered from knee surgery, and they went 17-27 before he made his debut. Once he joined the team, they continued a momentum-building surge and went 11-9 before the season was suspended.