Ex-Pelicans Teammate Leaks Group Chat Reaction to Zion Williamson–Moriah Mills Controversy

McCollum highlighted the humor and candid nature of the players when they approached viral news about their peers. Still, it is also important to note that the players were reacting purely as observers, not people involved in the situation.

McCollum himself has not spoken about this publicly before, likely due to his previous position as president of the National Basketball Players Association.

McCollum has himself stated that he spoke to Williamson and believes the Pelicans forward respects his blunt honesty. During an appearance on Ryan Russillo’s podcast on The Ringer, McCollum made it clear that the spotlight on Williamson doesn’t mean that the guard is going to sugarcoat things he says to him the way he might do with the media, and reiterated that the two are very close.

Williamson is currently out with a right adductor strain and is experiencing his lowest production season, including career lows in points, rebounds, and efficiency.

One of the reasons the story took over was due to Mills’ status as a former adult content creator, and reflecting on it in 2025, it seems like she has moved on from the issue.

“I didn’t handle everything perfectly, and I’ll never pretend otherwise,” she said in an interview. “But what people saw wasn’t a woman seeking attention. It was a woman in pain.”

Recap of the Zion Williamson–Moriah Mills Controversy and Related Drama

The controversy surfaced in June 2023, when Zion Williamson and girlfriend Akheema Love publicly announced they were expecting a child together, which caught widespread attention, and almost immediately, Mills claimed on social media that she had been in a private relationship with the forward. She alleged that they had been together in New Orleans days before the news of his child, which Williamson never publicly replied to.

Mills added screenshots to her posts, claiming to be from a Snapchat conversation with Williamson, and made a multitude of allegations online that propelled the situation into a viral social media storm.

The drama didn’t stop there, because Mills’ account was suspended from X for threatening to release explicit content with Williamson in it, violating the platform’s policies.

Beyond the Mills episode, Williamson has also faced other serious legal issues, including a lawsuit in 2025 filed by a different woman alleging an almost decade-long pattern of abuse that his legal team has denied and labeled defamatory.