Last season former NBA player JJ Redick criticized Zion Williamson publicly for distancing himself from the team, calling him a ‘detached teammate.’
The two were teammates for two years before, so Redick spoke not only looking from the outside in, but also from his own experience.
Looking back, the former NBA sharp shooter regrets making his comment public. At the same time, he reveals that he made his views known to Williamson when they played together, so it wasn’t something new.
“I think there’s been two times that I wish I would have handled differently,” Redick told Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report. “The first time was with Zion last year when CJ McCollum had given an interview at All-Star break, and they asked him what he and Zion had talked about and CJ said, ‘I haven’t spoken to Zion.’ Which I thought was strange — CJ had played five games with the Pelicans at that point.
“Again, I think I called him, like, as teammate he kind of distances himself or whatever, which is something that I said to Zion when I was his teammate. It wasn’t like this was the first time, I was just saying it publicly. But I wish I’d handled that differently, and I probably could have just avoided it altogether if I really wanted to.”
