Zion Williamson dunking over Grizzlies star Jaren Jackson Jr. Photo Credit: Bally Sports
By Reice Shipley on

Wednesday’s matchup between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Memphis Grizzlies was not only the season debut for both teams, but also the long-awaited return to the court for Pelicans star Zion Williamson. And Williamson wasted no time to provide a number of his classic highlight dunks in his return, which excited fans watching at home.

Injuries have unfortunately plagued Williamson early on in his young NBA career. In the past two seasons combined, he has played in just 29 games.

When healthy, he has shown that he can be a dominant force that can take over any game. And that is exactly what he did on Wednesday night against Memphis.

His final stat line for the game wasn’t anything that would exactly blow anyone way. He finished with 23 points and seven rebounds while shooting 9 of 17 from the field. It’s certainly a solid performance. But at first glance, it doesn’t look like anything exceptional.

However, a number of highlight poster dunks show that he is very clearly back to 100 percent, a great sign for the Pelicans this season.

His first set of highlight plays came in the second quarter, dunking over Grizzlies star forward Jaren Jackson Jr., who happens to be the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in the NBA.

The Grizzlies then quickly rushed the ball down the court on the next possession, with Luke Kennard missing a jump shot. The Pelicans then rebounded the ball, pushing it down the court as well before finding Williamson for an alley-oop dunk over Desmond Bane.

There are simply very few players in the world that can make these two plays happen within seconds of each other.

He wasn’t done there though, as Willamson caught another alley-oop dunk over a Pelicans defender late in the fourth quarter to put an exclamation point on the team’s first win of the season.

Fans were extremely pleased with his performance in his first game back on the court in quite some time Wednesday night.

Hopefully this is a sign of things to come from Williams for the rest of the season.

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About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley