ESPN has been trying to stir up some debate or whatever by insinuating that Zion Williamson is in the convo for the ROTY of the Year award. I don’t think any reasonable person thinks that he is, but ESPN (and other media outlets of the same ilk) is in the business of driving engagement to their content, and such a claim is sure to do so. I doubt anyone there REALLY thinks that Williamson has a chance at the award over Ja Morant.
The problem with their strategy is that it will, combined with the legitimately great games Williamson has been putting up night after night, convince casuals that Williamson is the deserving winner of the award. Those casuals (those dirty, filthy casuals) will not have seen more than a few scattered highlights of Morant, and probably will not have watched any full games at all. If you are one of those casuals and you somehow stumbled on this vid while searching for First Take clips, these highlights are not for you. Leave.
I don’t even want to think about how enraged and confused a casual would be when faced with the concept of an entire YouTube channel devoted to NBA highlights that doesn’t even feature any good players (besides a few rookies) at all.
If there was any doubt as to who the ROTY of the Year is, and there isn’t, but if there was (there really isn’t though), this dominant performance by Morant just erased it. You can see the statline right there in the title, I don’t need to repeat it. And even if you couldn’t see the statline, you can tell by the length of this vid (almost 5 minutes, this keeps frickin’ happening with this dude) that it’s going to be a doozy. WomAnthony Davbitch and NoDefense SuckBalls* lived up to their already well-earned nicknames as the Lakers got totally crushed by the Morant-led Grizzlies. I don’t really know exactly how it happened, given the ‘Zlies’ lack of success recently, but it totally did, and this description is officially over because I want to go attach my tear-harvesting device to some Lakers fan’s faces.
*If you’re new here, “NoDefense SuckBalls” refers to LeBron James.