Stephen A's Take: Zion Williamson's commitment to fitness is what we all have been waiting on.

Published Aug 23, 2024, 8:00 PM

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

Let's get to the NBA, where social media is buzzing over the appearing weight loss transformation that's happened with Pelicans superstar Zion Williamson.

Yo, y'all, check out this photo. Look at this man. This is Zion from.

This past weekend as he was hosting a basketball camp in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Pelicans forward looks noticeably thinner heading into this season compared to when he first entered the league. Okay, so we got to get that out the way first. Williamson has been historically injury prone, but last season he played a career high seventy games and led the Pelicans to the playoffs. Let me say this, I'm proud of Zion. I'm proud of Zion.

They say here it was.

It was only the second time in five seasons designed didn't miss at least half of his regular season games.

All true.

The brother's of career twenty four point game scorer, you average twenty two last year. He's a man child on the basketball court, extremely powerful, Okay, and his problem was food. I mean that's just the way it was. I'm not exaggerating when I tell y'all, you've got people in the NBA that says he was hiding food under.

His bed.

Because the Pelicans obviously had people checking up on him to make sure he tried to engage in some level of containment when it came to his diet, and.

That brother wasn't trying to hear it. He wasn't trying to hear it.

If you notice, we say very little about Zion's game because we know when this man wants it, he can go get it. Now they say he's at about two eighty one, that his aspiration is to get to about two seventy one. He was at a minimum of two eighty five when he played at Duke.

He was bigger than that when he was in high school. I mean, I'm just.

Looking at Zion right now and I think about the Pelicans and if this brother is on the basketball court, it's a different animal. What I was most excited about watching Zion Williamson was his last, his last game against the Lakers when he got hurt.

And the playing tournament.

Now, if you remember, just a couple of days earlier, the Lakers had she lacked them, and it was big news because in the playing tournament in Vegas last December, I was in attendance for that the Lakers beating New Orleans about forty four points. Lebron had thirty, bust Zion and the Pelican is living, you know what, And Zion had thirteen points. He was relatively anemic and basically a no show, and everybody was lamenting, Whe's your pride, Where's your dignity?

The whole bit.

And then they showed up against the Lakers and the play in tournament or the last game of the regular season, and they got beat up by the Lakers again. But then as a result of that, they got the Lakers in the play in for the playoffs, and Zion was bawling until he got hurt. So when he's on the basketball court, ladies and gentlemen, this is a superstar in the making.

When he's on the basketball court, he's box office.

And he's a man child, incredibly powerful with incredible hops and incredible with and girth, and can finish at the basket and could attactify anybody trying to get in his way and take an offensive foul from Zion Wimson. I'm telling you that right now, anybody trying to do that. So when you think about what he brings to the table on what he could do. Just imagine what the New Orleans Pelicans could do if Zion shows up. Were talking about La, but about Dallas, about Denver, so about Oklahoma City, so about Minnesota. You can look at Phoenix, you can look at at Sacramento, you look at look at the Clippers.

Of course, you can look at all of these teams. Somebody going home.

If Zion Wimson is one hundred percent and he playing in the playoffs.

Somebody going home. I'm tell you that right now. I don't know which team one of them going home.

Zion a healthy Zion Wimson with the New Orleans Pelicans, they ain't losing no first round. So it's really good to see him in shape, taking this seriously. This is his career. You know, he's got his bag. He's gonna get more of a bag if he dedicates itself. And I'm hoping, you know, he feels what I feel. I'm in the best the shape I've been into maybe thirty years. I feel better than I felt in practically my entire adult life.

Let me tell you when I was in Lady, I was in La.

I'm out here in LA and I was talking to somebody talking, a couple of people, and you know, they were looking at me, and I was very, very honest. I was like, it was so bad for me. I never want to take off my shirt. Only time I took off my shirt is when I got in the shower. That's how bad it was.

Yeah, it was that bad. I ain't even take off my shirt when I was getting damn. You know what I mean.

You know what I mean, I ain't even take off my shirt. Then, Okay, that's how bad it was. Now I can walk around with my shirt off if I want to. The reason why I want to get personal is because I want to say this to Zion, But I also want to say this to.

All of you out there.

Commit yourself to forty five minutes, whether it be cardio, lifting, whatever, get in the gym. All of this old zepic stuff and all this yo y'all, let me tell you something. If you taking that and that's all you're doing and you ain't in the gym, you might lose your weight, but you're gonna look nasty.

You gonna look gone, You're gonna look drawn, You're gonna take care of yourself. I'm telling you thatwnt work.

Get some supplements and vitamins, and get you behind in the gym forty five minutes a day, five days a week, lifting, peloton, treadmill, but you know, elliptical machine, weightlifting.

Push up. Some do something forty five minutes a day, five days a week.

I promise you in a month's time, you're gonna be mad when you do less than five days work. You'll be mad because you know you ain't doing what you're supposed to be doing, and it's gonna affect you.

Trust me on this. Trust me on this. I'm not lying to you. I'm serious. And that's just for us that's working every day. What if you Zion and you're getting two hundred.

Million, and the prospects are out there for you to get an additional five hundred million, and the world is your oyster.

All you gotta do.

Is cut back on eating whole wings and whole turkeys and a bunch of burghers and steaks and.

Everything like that.

And you discipline yourself not to be gluttonous, but also to put in the work.

Imagine what you will do. It's all I'm saying. I'm at a point now if I miss a day, that's all I give myself.

As Kobe Bryant, the Late Great Kobe Bryant will say, I don't negotiate with myself. It's a minimum of six days a week in the gym minimum. If I ain't doing that, I'm pissed off because I ain't taking care of myself. That's what you gotta do. Drink your water, make sure you have your electro lights, eat a banana, eat some fruit. Cut back on the white bread, the white pasta, the sugar, and get your ass in the gym for forty five minutes a day, five days a week.

And I promise you do that consistently for a month. And if you miss more than.

A day a week after that, watch how pitstruide yourself.

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