Stefan Bondy: Knicks will come face to face with Zion Williamson in a meaningful game for the first time

NEW ORLEANS — Mother Nature intervened the only other time the Knicks faced Zion Williamson.

It was in 2019, the last Summer League before the pandemic, and an earthquake shook the giant overhanging Jumbotron at the Vegas arena.

Williamson played a few minutes but was quickly ruled out with a knee injury, a sign of DNPs to come in his rookie campaign. The quake then sent panicked fans running to the exits, canceling the game in the fourth quarter.

Nearly two years later, Williamson, the league’s chosen (albeit flawed) heir apparent, is healthy enough to finally play a meaningful game Wednesday night against the Knicks, the team that once conceived him as the reward for tanking away the 2018-19 season. Williamson’s averages are spectacular for a 20-year-old (26.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, 62% shooting), and his durability this season has quelled concerns that the 280-pounder is a leaping injury risk.

It doesn’t negate the concerns. It just pushes them a little to the side.

“That’s probably a good word to describe him — unique,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s unusual because it’s power and speed. And usually when you have the power, you don’t have the speed or if you have the speed, you don’t have the power. And he has both.”

The hulking presence is a reminder of what the Knicks missed when the ping pong balls steered them to the third pick. But it stings less with Thibodeau navigating a playoff run and RJ Barrett recovering from his discouraging rookie season. The Knicks (28-27), in fact, have a better record than the Pelicans (25-29), who are fighting uphill just for a spot in the play-in tournament.

New York also has its own All-Star power forward who will go head-to-head with Williamson on Wednesday.

“I’ll be ready for it,” Julius Randle said.

The league and its network partners are pushing Williamson, even devising a 22-team format for the Orlando bubble last summer so that New Orleans would be included. The Pelicans, despite failing to make the playoffs the last two years, were scheduled for 14 games on national TV in the first half of this season. Only the Lakers had more.

LeBron James’ reign won’t last forever, despite the 36-year-old’s stellar record against Father Time. Williamson is among the candidates to succeed LeBron as the face of the league, a title passed down from Magic Johnson to Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant.

But Zion has to stay healthy. And he has to win.

Barring an unforeseen scratch (you never know in today’s NBA), the Knicks will get their first Zion experience in a meaningful game and without an earthquake disruption.