“He’s going to develop into one of the elite players in the N.B.A.,” said Redick, who went on to cite areas where Williamson has room for improvement. “You can go down the list: He can shoot it better, he can defend better, he can pass better, he can do a lot of it better. But he’s doing it all pretty darn well right now.”
For his part, Williamson said he was “trying to get better at everything.” He was not particularly expansive after the game.
On facing James for the first time: “It was a great experience. He’s an incredible player, and his résumé speaks for itself.”
On holding himself to a high standard: “I hate when I make mistakes.”
On whether the atmosphere at N.B.A. games is different than what he experienced as a college player at Duke: “I feel like it’s pretty similar. The only difference is there’s no student section.”
Williamson has been revealing his charisma on the court. When the Pelicans visited Staples Center to play the Lakers on Jan. 3, he was still rehabilitating from knee surgery. But he worked out before the game, and his mere presence had a magnetic effect on dozens of early-arriving Lakers fans who crowded the court. They even cheered his dunks.
The spotlight on Williamson has only intensified in recent weeks.
“It’s absolutely crazy, really, where every hotel, every restaurant — everything that we do — there are just a ton of people there that want to see him,” Gentry said. “And I think he tries to accommodate as much as he possibly can. But obviously, it’s impossible to stop and sign every autograph and everything like that. But he tries to do the best he can.”
The great concern, of course, is his health. Each game doubles as a physiological litmus test: Did Williamson avoid injury? Because no one this big should be this dynamic. At 6 feet 6 and 284 pounds, he seems to defy logic, gravity and biomechanics, and the Pelicans’ medical staff has worked with him on his ability to land with less force. Every time he emerges from another game with all of his limbs intact, it builds confidence — among the viewing public, at least — that his style of play might just be sustainable.
