Zion Williamson touting new fit body — again

Zion Williamson has a new fitness story every fall

It's not the first time Williamson has gone into the season with a "new" body. In 2022, Williamson credited a new diet for his slimmer physique, which reportedly involved a personal chef who tricked him into eating vegetables. According to the chef, Williamson was losing 7-9 pounds per week and "You couldn't pay Zion to put his shirt on."

Williamson was quite good that season (26 PPG) — for 28 games. Then he suffered a hamstring injury that kept him out for the rest of the season.

In 2023, Williamson was a summer gym rat

Before the 2023-24 season, the story was Williamson's new commitment to fitness. According to former executive vice president David Griffin, Williamson was "in our gym more than he has in his entire career in the offseason." Williamson also admitted that summer on Gilbert Arenas' podcast that he was responsible for conditioning issues that plagued him in the first four seasons of his NBA career.

Still, by Dec. 2023, Pelicans management was again telling Williamson "his diet and conditioning needed to improve." Where he did improve was in availability, as Williamson logged a career-high 70 games and scored 40 points against the Los Angeles Lakers in a play-in game — before suffering a hamstring injury that knocked him out of the game, and the playoffs.

2024 was the summer Zion Williamson turned skinny

In the summer of 2024, Williamson was bragging about weight loss again, announcing that his weight was down to 281 pounds (he's 6-foot-6) and planned to be 272 by the time the season started, which would have been roughly 30 pounds lighter than he was to start the 2023-24 season.

What happened next? Williamson played six of the Pelicans' first nine games and averaged 22.7 points. Then a hamstring injury kept him out for two months. He ended up playing just 30 games, with the Pelicans shutting him down for the season with 12 games to go.

So while Williamson looks slender in photos and seems confident about his fitness, it's also the fourth consecutive season where we've seen this same story about Williamson finally getting in shape. In the previous three seasons, he averaged 43 games played.

It's time for Williamson to stop bragging about working out on a football field and time to start producing on a basketball court for a whole season. Until then, media day might continue to be the highlight of his season.