re: Zion 2021 vs 2019

I happen to be tight with a couple people in the building. Have been friends with 1 of them in particular my entire life and like friends tend to do, we discuss things that are interesting at work. Obviously, I tend to use discretion or speak in code here if I happen to know certain things. This Zion weight thing has been a hot topic for a long time though and just thought people would like to be able to confirm what they have been seeing with their own eyes the last few years.

The mom being his nutritionist is a bit overblown. Covid played a bit into that being the case at times. But he has had several professionals hired at times and at times he’s followed their direction to a T. At times, not so much. Z is a human. He’s 21, he loves basketball and he admittedly likes to eat, when the weight issue crops up it’s generally injury/stress related. When Z gets hurt, he goes into a bit of a hole like most people would do, and he definitely deviates from his usual diet. Part of what makes Zion, Zion, is family so when he is down and can’t play basketball, you are damn straight he is going to go back to his comfort zone, eat some home cooked meals and go hang out at his happy place, Duke.

Is his stepfather his Trainer? Again overblown. Covid influenced part of this. Z also trains with Pelicans staff throughout the year if there are no Covid restrictions and if he is healthy enough to do so.

Zion really is a good dude overall. In some ways he is more mature than any of us will ever have to be in our lives and in other ways he is still a kid, and in even other ways, he is just like everyone else. Everyone gets down in the dumps from time to time. Everyone deviates from their diet from time to time. But not everyone is in the public eye like Zion. Hell, 99.99% of professional athletes are not in the public eye the way Zion is. Personally, I’d be exhausted as well.