Congrats, you were right about Zion Williamson, now shut up about it

One of the most maddening things about take culture is people want to be right so badly that they end up rooting for the take over all else. So if your reaction to the latest, depressing Zion Williamson injury update was: “I told you he was made of glass,” I don’t have the time or energy to entertain your glee.

It’s not surprising that Williamson’s hamstring injury — which has turned into a two-month saga with no end in sight — lingered. He’s had health issues at every level of hoops, and some people’s bodies are built in such a way that once the string is unfurled, there’s no way to wind it up as tight ever again.

That’s not what anybody wants for Zion. No single player, not even LeBron James at this point, has the gravitational pull of Williamson. When he’s playing, NBA Twitter perks up like your dog when they hear kibble hitting the bowl. We go into a frenzy and nothing brings hoops heads more pleasure than when a big bowl of Zion hits the floor.

And I don’t blame anyone for inhaling every scrap as fast as possible, because — unlike a dog who treats every meal like its last — every game we get with Williamson feels like it really could be his last. I can understand if the obsession has turned off people. Sports fans as a whole have spent infinitely more time talking about Williamson than watching him play.

While I agree that any talk of Williamson’s potential as the NBA’s next superstar is ill-advised — let’s not hype a guy who can’t get through an NBA season even with load management — there is nothing like seeing him size up some schmoo, and then baptizing him in the rivers of Zion.

So please, please, please, don’t celebrate the validation of your Williamson take. First of all, saying a pro athlete is going to fail isn’t that groundbreaking, and second, rooting against Zion dunks is un-American.