Zion Williamson had the best words for his first official NBA game: "It was everything I dreamed of, except for the losing part."
"Just the energy the crowd brought, the energy the city brought, it was electric and I'm just grateful that they did that," he said after his New Orleans Pelicans fell short against the San Antonio Spurs, 121-117. "So it was a dream come true to finally get out there, but at the end of the day I did want to win, so we've got to look to the next game."
The most hyped rookie since LeBron gave the home crowd more than enough reason to break out MVP and "We want Zion!" chants. His professional debut was by no means perfect, but such explosive performance definitely met expectations.
So what went right and wrong (and horribly wrong) in Zion's coming party?
GOOD
Flipped the switch
Haters were already tweeting about him being bust when the 6-foot-6, 285-pound athlete only had five points and four rebounds to show for after the first three quarters. Credit Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for the extra coverage and Pels tactician Alvin Gentry for giving him just under 12 minutes playing time.
Then Zion took over and "went on a hell of a run," according to San Antonio guard DeMar DeRozan. He scored 17 straight in a ridiculous three-minute stretch during the payoff period before Gentry called it a night for him.
Shot his shot
He won't be the second coming of Stephen Curry, but Zion making the occasional three-pointer will open things up for New Orleans. He made his defenders pay for the late closeouts by hitting all four of his outside attempts.
Turns out, the former Duke forward has his three-month rehabilitation from right knee arthroscopy surgery to thank for his sweet shooting: "When you're not able to move around and do athletic movements for a while, the only thing you can do is just shoot spot-up jumpers, I guess that was the result of that."
BAD
Work harder on defense
Overshadowed by the hot-shooting freshman's scoring binge was DeRozan and San Antonio guard Derrick White blowing by him for easy layups after a made basket. He didn't have any defensive statistic. We understand that it's his first game, but basketball greatness comes from both ends of the floor.
Take care of the ball better
As much as we love those nice passes to Brandon Ingram and E'Twaun Moore, Zion's assist to turnover ratio (3:5) leaves at lot to be desired. Four of his miscues were part of that slow start, which can be attributed to the Spurs' double-teaming and him still getting a grasp on Gentry's up-tempo system.
UGLY
Fat shaming fail
Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy should've known better than to nitpick on a 19-year-old's weight and pick Grizz rook Ja Morant over his draft classmate four minutes into the game. Before Zion could even prove the ESPN broadcast team wrong, fans had already destroyed them on Twitter:
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