McLeod Park is a 48-acre venue in Florence, South Carolina, big enough to have hiking trails, tennis courts, a skateboard park, baseball diamonds and basketball courts on site.
As a kid, Zion Williamson spent hours there playing against older competition. One of the lessons Williamson internalized was the need to play through contact.
“You call the foul out there, you get labeled soft,” Williamson said. “Those experiences from when I was younger really helped me keep my head cool today.”
No one can ever accuse Williamson of playing soft. From the moment he stepped on the floor as an NBA rookie, he has played like a battering ram who has been blessed with a point guard’s handle and a 45-inch vertical.
Williamson is already one of the game’s premier paint scorers, which means that getting fouled a lot is an inevitability. Wednesday, Williamson drew nine fouls in the Pelicans’ 104-98 win over the Detroit Pistons. Twice, the Pistons didn’t even bother making a play on the basketball when Williamson leaped toward the basket, instead choosing to wrap Williamson up and take him to the floor.
Williamson tallied 29 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block. It was another complete effort from the 22-year-old forward, whose Pelicans are in sole possession of first place in the Western Conference after reeling off five straight wins.
Williamson shot 7 of 11 from the free-throw line against Detroit. He might have broke the 30-point mark for the fourth time this season had a few more calls been made in his favor.
Late in the fourth quarter, Williamson blew past Detroit forward Saddiq Bey to get to the rim. He made a righty layup that extended the Pelicans lead to six with 3:04 remaining. He made the shot in spite of significant body contact from Detroit center Jalen Duren, which caused Williamson to crash into the basket stanchion.
“Unreal….” Swin Cash, the Pelicans vice president of basketball operations, tweeted after the no-call.
Compared to many NBA stars, Williamson does not spend significant time every game lobbying the refs to give him a more favorable whistle. He mostly takes a stoic approach to receiving contact. He is drawing 5.7 fouls per game, according to NBA.com. That is the 14th most among all players.
When the opposition gets overly physical with Williamson, he has teammates who are willing to stand up for him. In the second quarter of Wednesday’s game, Williamson caught a lob pass. As Williamson rose to shoot, Pistons wing Alec Burks wrapped his hands around Williamson’s waist and took him to the ground.
Pelicans forward Naji Marshall came rushing to Williamson’s defense. The referees deemed it overzealous, as they gave Marshall a technical foul for stepping toward Burks and exchanging words with him.
“Those are our best players,” Marshall said. “Anybody mess with them, they’ve got to see me."
Marshall, who scored 17 points, said he was happy to have been involved in a regular-season game that was so physical. He said it was a preview of what the games will be like come playoff time.
“I don’t think we played a game this physical all season,” Marshall said. “In practice, when you know each other, you beat up on each other. It reminded me of training camp a little. I think it was really good for us.”
Williamson kept his cool throughout Wednesday’s game. He will continue drawing a lot of contact because of how often he attacks the rim. His education at McLeod Park taught him how to deal with it.
“What all the adults tell you there,” Williamson said, “is that’s where you turn boys into men.”