Even Zion Williamson’s missed dunks are capable of breaking the rim.
Listed at 6-foot-7 and 284 pounds, Zion Williamson is quite a handful on the defensive end. Whether you’re the defender in his path, the referee trying to officiate him or the rim quivering in anticipation of one of his backboard-rocking dunks, Williamson is a player to be feared when he gets a full head of steam going.
Apparently that even applies when Zion misses the dunk attempt, as he did in Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers.
After the New Orleans Pelicans star tried to put Pacers backup center Goga Bitadze on a poster in the fourth quarter and missed, officials had to pause the game so arena staff could fix and the net and level the rim out again:
Zion Williamson is the NBA’s modern-day Paul Bunyan
With each passing week, it seems like Zion Williamson’s mythos grows larger. Given that he’s only in his second NBA season, by the time his career is finished, it’ll be hard to tell fact from fiction in terms of the incredible things he’s accomplished, which might sound closer to tall tales.
While there’s nothing overtly impressive about missing a dunk, Williamson was technically fouled by Bitadze on the play, and the simple phrase “He broke the rim with a missed dunk” is something you don’t see very often.
The Pelicans eked out a one-point win on the road after Myles Turner missed a potential game-winning layup. Williamson had a relatively mundane night, chipping in 18 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting, but the one missed dunk is what we’ll remember most from this performance.
Take it easy on those rims, Zion!