New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson’s former trainer — Jasper Bibbs — jabbed at the star’s weight gain on Instagram.
The posts came in light of a report that Williamson won’t listen to the Pelicans on improving his diet and conditioning.
Williamson — who has a lengthy injury history — has played in 19 of the Pelicans’ 23 games so far this season and is averaging 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 57.4 percent from the field.
While Williamson has done a nice job of staying on the floor this season and is putting up big numbers, he has had back-to-back forgettable performances.
Against the Sacramento Kings back on Dec. 4, he scored just 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor across 28 minutes of playing time. Surprisingly, New Orleans still managed to beat the Kings despite a quiet showing from arguably the team’s best player.
The Pelicans weren’t as fortunate in their most recent game, when Williamson’s performance against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers again left something to be desired.
Williamson dropped just 13 points, and the Pelicans weren’t able to come away with a win this time around. The team was eliminated from the In-Season Tournament in embarrassing fashion, as the Pelicans went on to lose to the Lakers by a final score of 133-89.
The Pelicans currently own a 12-11 record, which is the 10th-best record in the Western Conference. They’d land in the play-in tournament if the regular season were to end today.
New Orleans has fared far better at home than it has on the road so far this season. The team owns an impressive 8-4 home record but is just 4-7 on the road.
The Pelicans’ next game will be against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 11. The Timberwolves have arguably played as well as any team in the league so far this season, as evidenced by their league-best 17-4 record.
It will be interesting to see if Bibbs takes any more subtle shots at the 23-year-old in the coming days and if Williamson will respond to the situation at all.
