Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to Joe Dumars saying that the New Orleans Pelicans don’t have any plans to trade Zion Williamson. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
View more
Advertisement
Video Transcript
But Pelicans exec Joe Mo- Dumars has had enough of the constant speculation.
Let’s listen to what he had to say during his year-end press conference about trading him.
Even when you say no to people, like, “No, we’re not moving Zion,” within two hours it’s out that, yeah, you had conversations about trading for Zion.
And so, listen, we, we have no, intentions of doing that.
You know, we’re going into the off-season, looking forward to Zion coming back next year and, and playing great again next year.
You know what?
Like, so much of what Dumars just said there is real, and it’s so frustrating.
Advertisement
Even if all you do is pick up the phone to say, “No, we’re not interested in Zion, or trading Zion,” somebody turns that around.
They’re like, “Well, they were having conversations about it,” even if it was to say no.
Like, he’s right.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Are we buying this?
On target or on something that Zion will finish next season as a Pelican?
I think that’s on target, and not because of this crazy value that he has for the New Orleans Pelicans, that there’s just no way that the Pelicans could move on from him.
I think that’s on target because I don’t think anybody else wants Zion, nor do I think that any team would be willing to give up what the Pelicans would be asking for in exchange for Zion Williamson.
Advertisement
I think what Joe Dumars is doing right there is breaking up with the market before the market can break up with him or can break up with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Like, let’s just go ahead and say, “We’re not trading Zion.”
Is it because you love Zion, or is it because you know that nobody is going to be willing to trade for him?
I just don’t really know what the value of Zion is.
The value of Zion is his potential, is the intrigue of all of the sheer and raw talent that we saw coming out of Duke.
But that was a long time ago.
That was 2019.
We’re in 2026, and the legend and the lore of Zion far surpasses the reality of what he has been.