Zion Williamson proved his caliber amid the noise! With the over-weight trope attached to Luka Doncic, fans have shifted their focus away from the Pelicans star for a while. For a long time, the young power forward had been a frequent target of NBA trolls, also because of his injury-riddled career. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old returned to the spotlight once again with an impressive record, pushing the fan on an unusual path.

Standing on the bottom of the table, the Pels returned to the court after the All-Star break, facing the Mavericks. The short-handed Pels stood no chance, as Kyrie Irving & Co. edged past with a comfortable 111-103 win. However, despite the loss, a silver lining emerged for Pelicans fans. Looks like they have found their future and it’s Zion.

No, I am not kidding. Not long ago, the same fans wanted the franchise to trade him out along with Brandon Ingram ahead of the deadline. So it’s fair you are wondering how can they see a future with him. They will because Zion Williamson stunned everyone with an insane record tonight. With his 29-point effort, the star forward surpassed 5000 career points with a bang. It’s actually a double bang. He became the third fastest active player next to LeBron James and Luka Doncic to achieve this feat. Notably, he was only 8 games slower than Bron, who had achieved it in 194 games.

Moreover, Williamson became the fastest player in Pels’ franchise history to reach the 5k milestone, taking over Jrue Holiday’s spot. So, what does this achievement change in fans’ perspective? Are they going to continue to troll him? Let’s find out.

Zion Williamson’s 5k feat didn’t move the needle

Yes. The spectacular achievement didn’t pull the fans to his side. With six seasons into his career, Zion Williamson has had the opportunity to play 492 games (Including the games remaining this season). But, he has only played 203 games and missed a total of 208 games. Doing simple math, he should have ideally reached 10k points if he had a healthy run. It’s undoubtedly a frustrating stat to witness for a die-hard Pels fan. However, a fan opted for a humorous way to deal with this. They wrote, “Now if he plays for 50 more years he can beat LeBrons total of all-time points.“

It’s an absolute honor to share a record sheet with LeBron James. At the same time, it’s important to address the irony. The scoring champion was able to achieve this feat in his 4th season (2007-08 season), two seasons earlier than Zion. At this rate, the Pels star might have a play longer than 22 seasons to surpass the legend.

The majority of fans were just annoyed by the unfortunate side of things. A fan put his frustration into words, writing, “Man don’t get me started. He coulda did this 3 seasons ago if he wasn’t always hurt,” Three seasons ago could be an exaggeration but the injuries have slowed his process. They not only affected his individual milestones but also the team’s progress.

Last season, the Pels managed to clear the Play-in tournament and faced the OKC Thunder in the first round. Unfortunately, Williamson suffered an injury at the Play-in, being left out of action. Then guess what? They crashed out 0-4. Another fan didn’t hesitate to state the truth, as they wrote, “This sh-t not even a flex he has been in the league for 6 f–king years and he’s played 203 games.“

The fan sent out a reminder to the rest of the fandom, clearing out that it wasn’t an achievement to celebrate but a concern that the team needed to address. Another fan, adding to the delayed achievement, called it “nasty work“. 

On the other hand, a rare fan seemed pretty impressed with the stat and wrote, “Fastest to 5K in Pelicans history? The future is bright!” When it was a roll of dice between Brandon Ingram and Zion, the team went with the big man. Now that the star has shown significant improvement in his fitness, there’s no harm in anticipating a strong comeback run from the 23-year-old. What do you think? Is it the turning point that the Pelicans were looking forward to? Let us know in the comments.