Stephen A. Smith has long criticized New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Zion Williamson for being out of shape and his most recent jabs drew criticism from former NBA player Antonio Daniels, who is now a TV analyst for the team.
After Smith went after Williamson’s conditioning again on Friday, when he said on ESPN that “it’s not about his game. It’s about how many burgers he’s eating and whether or not he’s going to be in shape or is he going to keep eating McDonald’s and keep having chefs clamoring for him to come to their restaurants.”
Daniels responded by saying Smith was being “inappropriate and lazy.”
Speaking on SiriusXM’s NBA Radio, Daniels said, “I am all for objective, fair critiquing of individuals and, collectively, of teams. I felt what Stephen A. said this morning on Zion was completely inappropriate and lazy. If you have an issue, there’s a way to go about addressing that issue.”
Daniels went on to note that New Orleans and Williamson are playing well, with the Pelicans now having won eight of their last 10 games.
And in Williamson’s last eight games, he’s averaging 25 points, 6.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game.
“[The Pelicans] have won eight of their last nine games, but then you wake up this morning and this right here is the topic? To me, it’s almost gotten to the point where it’s personal,” said Daniels, who played 13 years in the NBA, won a title with the Spurs in 1999 and has been with New Orleans since 2019 as a broadcaster.
For the year, Williamson’s numbers are down slightly from last season, when he was an All-Star.
Daniels also noted that Smith is no stranger to knocking Williamson on the subject.
Also this season, Smith titled a podcast, “Zion is Fat.”
The Pelicans organization didn’t ignore Smith, either, taking a creative way to defend Williamson: by trying to mock Smith’s own athletic skills, with screenshots of Smith’s underwhelming college stats from his playing days at Salem State University.
Not surprisingly, Smith went at the Pelicans, responding on X, “Can’t score when you can’t play due to a devastating knee injury. That’s my fact. Now……what’s y’all excuse for never winning anything???”
