Zion Williamson will play in Pelicans’ seeding opener against Jazz

Zion Williamson will play in the New Orleans Pelicans’ first seeding game in Orlando.

The NBA restart is officially here, and one of the league’s brightest attractions in Zion Williamson will be taking part after all.

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes, the New Orleans Pelicans rookie phenom will be suiting up for Thursday’s first seeding game within the Orlando bubble against the Utah Jazz. Williamson was originally listed as a game-time decision after being away from the court for nearly two weeks dealing with an urgent family matter.

He participated in Thursday’s shootaround, according to The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, Not long after, ESPN’s Andrew Lopez reported a decision wouldn’t be made until after he had gone through his pregame warmup.

In regards to any kind of minutes restriction, while Zion will start, Haynes reports he will play in short quick bursts. However, that won’t necessarily come with a limit on his minutes.

Zion Williamson is going to play, which is great news for everyone but Utah.

The former Duke sensation left the NBA bubble on July 16 to tend to that family matter before returning on July 24. Hereceived coronavirus testing every single day he was outside of the bubble, producing negative tests each time. After quarantining for four days upon returning to Orlando, Williamson returned to practice for the Pelicans on Tuesday, July 28.

That didn’t give him much time to get re-acclimated or get many practices in, but considering he showed up to the bubble in such incredible shape, looking trimmer and more muscular, hopefully that time away from the court doesn’t limit him in New Orleans’ first official game.

The Pelicans should exercise caution if his body isn’t ready for the strain of significant minutes in real NBA games just yet, especially since he missed all three of the team’s tune-up scrimmages, but now that he’s good to go, Zion, the Pelicans and sports fans in general certainly won’t complain about seeing him headline the NBA’s return.

Though he only played 19 regular-season games this year, Williamson was an immediate lightning rod, averaging 23.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game on 58.9 percent shooting. He’s the franchise cornerstone of the future, a delight to watch and a major draw for professional basketball. Thankfully, we’ll get to enjoy him on the court right out of the gate.