NBA Rumors: Zion Williamson Refused to Work with Pelicans' VP of Player Care at Times

New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson and the team's vice president of player care haven't seen eye to eye over the past four seasons, particularly during his rookie campaign in 2019-20.

Per Christian Clark of NOLA.com, Williamson's relationship with Adrian Nelson "became strained" during his rookie season and got so bad the two-time All-Star "refused to work with him" at times.

Clark previously reported in September 2021 that Williamson was "frustrated" with the Pelicans for the number of hoops they made him jump through as he was recovering from a torn meniscus suffered in preseason before the start of the 2019-20 season.

Then-Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry told Clark after Williamson's first game on Jan. 22, 2020, the budding superstar "wasn't happy" about being used in bursts on a restricted-minutes count.

"Gentry was frustrated that the burst limits interrupted a magical moment and potentially cost his team a win," Clark wrote. "He also felt the Griffin-Nelson duo lacked feel for adhering to the burst limits in the fourth quarter, despite the way the game was going."

Clark's note about the clash between Williamson and Nelson was part of a bigger story about the Pelicans restructuring their player care and performance team this offseason due to their injury issues last season.

Nelson was hired by New Orleans in 2019 after spending the previous 26 seasons with the Phoenix Suns. He voted Joe O'Toole NBA Athletic Trainer of the Year in 2009 by the National Basketball Athletic Trainers Association.

Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Jose Alvarado combined to miss 111 games last season.

Per Clark, the Pelicans maintain that Clark could return in a different role but people with the team said "they would be surprised" if he's around the club at all next season.

The Pelicans originally announced Williamson was expected to be out for six to eight weeks after having surgery on his meniscus.

It wound up being more than three months before Williamson appeared in a game. He gradually built up his minutes during each outing and had a stretch of eight consecutive games in which he was on the court for more than 30 minutes.

After the Pelicans were eliminated from playoff contention in the bubble, Williamson didn't play in the team's final two games.

Williamson's second season was much more successful, as he appeared in 61 of 72 games. He averaged 27.0 points and 7.2 rebounds to earn an All-Star selection.

Injuries have been a significant problem for Williamson over the past two years. He missed the entire 2021-22 season due to a Jones fracture in his foot suffered in the offseason.

Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin initially told reporters "our hope and our view" was Williamson could return by the start of the regular season.

The timeline kept getting delayed because Williamson's foot was slow to heal before he was shut down for the season in March 2022.

Despite those injury concerns, New Orleans signed Williamson to a five-year rookie max extension worth an estimated $194.3 million in July 2022. He had a fantastic start to this season, averaging 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game in 29 starts.

Williamson suffered a strained hamstring during a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 2. He was expected to miss three weeks before being reevaluated. The 22-year-old was cleared to resume basketball activities on March 22 and be reevaluated in two weeks.

Griffin announced on April 7 that Williamson would miss the rest of the regular season and the play-in tournament. New Orleans' playoff hopes ended with a 123-118 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the play-in tournament.

Williamson has appeared in 114 out of possible 308 regular-season games in four years.