Pelicans' Alvin Gentry: Zion Williamson Shouldn't Be Compared to LeBron James
New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry knows the LeBron James-Zion Williamson comparisons are coming. He's already doing his best to distance Williamson from that level of pressure.
"There's very few guys—at 19 years old—who can come in and impact this league. There's one in California but there's also not anybody like him," Gentry told reporters Monday.
"They shouldn't do that (comparing)," Gentry added. "We are not doing that. We are comparing Zion to Zion. We want Zion to be the best Zion Williamson that he can be. Not anybody else. We want him to be the best basketball player he can become using his name and no comparison."
James averaged 20.9 points, 5.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game during his rookie campaign. Williamson and James were both drafted at age 18, but their rookie seasons are considered their age-19 years because of their birth dates (July 6 for Zion, Dec. 30 for LeBron).
The comparisons are not necessarily due to their game or skills. LeBron entered the league much as he is now, a massive point forward capable of redefining the entire sport. His frame was wiry and long, not yet sculpted with the strength and work ethic that's given him almost unprecedented durability given his workload.
Williamson looked like a man among children in high school, a trend that continued at Duke. Official measurements have him listed at 6'6", and he was 285 pounds at Duke, more than 30 pounds heavier than James has ever been listed. A better basketball comparison might be to an early-career Charles Barkley, given their capabilities as slightly undersized bowling balls in the middle who astound with the quick-twitch athleticism for their size.
"What strikes me? His agility and his quickness," James told ESPN's Dave McMenamin of Zion. "For his size, how strong he is, to be able to move like the way he moves, he's very impressive. I mean, everybody can see the athleticism. That's obviously, that's ridiculous. But the speed and the quickness that he moves [with] at that size is very impressive."
However, Zion hype is unlike anything we've seen since James entered the league in 2003. There have been better freshman seasons, but none have combined the pure dominance with Williamson's jaw-dropping flair. Williamson has a $75 million shoe contract and more than $100 million guaranteed to his name before ever playing an NBA game—putting him in a class with LeBron and exactly no one else.
While LeBron exceeded his hype in every sense of the word, Gentry's right in pointing out it would be unfair to compare anyone to one of the two or three greatest players to ever play the game.
True Hoop partner and analyst and Executive Director of The Pro Training Center, David Thorpe, returns to The Full 48 with Howard Beck to discuss Thorpe’s Team of players including JJ Redick, Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, Kevon Looney, and Mike Conley, and to also breakdown the 3-point shots of Lonzo Ball, Markelle Fultz, and Ben Simmons.
