Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michael Sykes

Zion Williamson had the coldest explanation for his extremely disrespectful dunk on the Suns

The New Orleans Pelicans are real. Really real. This team is legitimately an NBA title contender.

The Pelicans proved it with their outright domination of the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, making them the unquestioned No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.

The team put the rest of the NBA on notice. It is not to be toyed with. Zion Williamson made sure the Phoenix Suns knew that, too.

He punctuated the Pelicans’ win with a thunderous dunk worthy of ever 50 score the NBA’s dunk contest has ever seen. It rattled the entire arena, mostly in a good way for the home crowd. We can’t say the same for Chris Paul and the Suns, though.

It didn’t go over too well with the team. The dunk nearly started a scuffle between the two squads.

Queue up the unwritten rule talk. The Suns were mad. Super mad.

The best takes and the sharpest bets on all the hoops storylines you need to know. Sign up for our Layup Lines newsletter, hitting your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Watch our sneaker unboxing series, Special Delivery

Wait, why were the Suns so mad?

Basically, the game was over when Williamson did his 360 tomahawk dunk and the Suns felt like it was disrespectful.

Cam Payne explained it here.

 

Dang. So why did Zion do it?

His explanation has got to be the coldest reasoning ever. But when he broke it down, it was actually perfectly reasonable.

He knows his team has to dominate the Suns after Phoenix eliminated the Pelicans from the playoffs last year. This was Williamson asserting his dominance.

“That was a little out of character for me. But, you’ve got to understand, they sent my teammates home last year. I missed all last year. I got carried away a little bit — I admit that. But I was in my locker room with my brothers who were down because the Suns sent us home last year. That’s a tough moment to be a part of. So in that moment, I got carried away. It was out of character for me. If they was to do the same thing, I’d have no problem with it.” 

Translation: Yeah, I did it. It wasn’t exactly right. But it was necessary. And who is going to stop me? That’s what I thought.

Whew boy. Fans loved this.

CJ McCollum brought solutions to the table

I’ll leave you with this. CJ McCollum had some sage advice for the Suns next time something like this is about to happen.

And that’s that on that.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.