Former Los Angeles Lakers big man Shaquille O’Neal is a tough man to impress. Not even a triple-double from Zion Williamson was enough for Shaq to give the New Orleans Pelicans star forward his props.
During TNT’s postgame show on Tuesday night and after being informed that Williamson had a triple-double of 22 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, the former NBA Most Valuable Player said that he needed to see more from the Pels’ burly weapon.
“You giving him props for that? I need more. I need 26, 27. I demand for my franchise player playing at the max. Anybody can get 20 points now,” said Shaq, who is a four-time NBA champion. “That’s good, but that’s not good enough,” he continued.
But it’s also clear that Shaq just has a higher bar for Williamson than most other players because he knows how capable the former Duke Blue Devils star is on the court. That’s not to mention that Williamson is being paid handsomely by the Pelicans, as he inked a five-year, $197.23 million contract extension with the team in 2022.
“I’m not impressed by that. You need to do more, Zion, I love you.” Shaq added.”
New Orleans Pelicans’ Zion Williamson is healthy and delivering on the court
A healthy Williamson can be a devastating one-man wrecking machine on the court. But staying healthy has been his biggest problem in his still-young NBA career. He has only played in 27 of the Pelicans’ 66 games to date in the 2024-25 NBA regular season, mostly because of a hamstring issue that caused him to miss 27 outings.
Nevertheless, he’s been playing well of late, having averaged 24.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists in his last four outings while shooting 57.1 percent from the floor.
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