The Portland Trail Blazers decided to free up their roster to build around star point guard, Damian Lillard. However, the trade saw the Blazers say goodbye to CJ McCollum who has been a part of their roster for the longest time. CJ will find his new home in New Orleans will play for the Pelicans along with Zion Williamson.
Zion Williamson has been struggling with a number of injuries and has not really had the chance to build completely in his career. However, the news of CJ joining him should have lifted his spirits. That was not the case and JJ Redick did not sit silently at how Zion treated his teammate.
JJ Redick blasts Zion for being a detached teammate towards CJ McCollum
JJ Redrick is no new person to the league. He is a former teammate to Zion and knows how things around the league work. JJ understands that good chemistry between the bigs of a team goes a long way in helping a team win championships. The trade was announced and everyone would have expected Zion to get in touch with CJ.
However, Zion Williamson was somewhat of a detached teammate and did into really interact with CJ. Zion is working on the road to recovery and has not played a game this season yet. During the NBA All-Star weekend, CJ McCollum spoke about how Zion had not reached out to him directly.
“I haven’t had conversations with him directly, I’ve spoken with some people close to him and I look forward to sitting down with him sooner than later. I know about as much as you do right now, but I’m gonna get to the bottom of it.”
JJ Redick however did not appreciate this one bit and decided to call out his former teammate on the ESPN show, ‘First Take’. Redick spoke about how Zion did not show any signs of caring and it was not a great sign.
“There’s a responsibility that you have as an athlete when you play a team sport to be fully invested, You’re fully invested in your body, you’re fully invested in your work and you’re fully invested in your teammates. That is your responsibility, and we have not seen that from Zion. ”
CJ McCollum made his debut for the Pelicans and is averaging 21.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game in the 2021-20222 regular season.