Zion Williamson, by the numbers

new orleans – Zion Williamson Starting his 100th career NBA game in fitting style, he finished with a lob. Jose Alvarado for his first bucket on Monday night.

Williamson finished with 23 points, eight rebounds, a career-high eight assists and three blocks as the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-101.

1,042 days into his January 21, 2020 debut, Williamson’s milestone game has been derailed by injuries for much of his career so far, including a foot injury that kept him out of the entire 2021-22 season.

But Williamson said his time off the court made him a better person.

“It’s been a long road,” Williamson said after Monday’s victory. “Would I have wanted to travel like that? Absolutely not. I wish I could have played every match.

“But at the end of the day, I’m still grateful that I went through it because it helped me realize a lot mentally and spiritually and grow as a man.

“So I finally hit 100 games… think, I’m on three coaches. This is the first year the locker room looked the same with the players. Is it good to have stable people around me now?”

Finally, with 100 appearances, the beginning of Williamson’s career stacks up against all-time greats. Tip: Zion has some great historical companies.

• Williamson has averaged 25.2 points on 60% of his career shots. No player who debuted in the shot clock era has averaged that number in his first 100 games. In fact, the only players exceeding these figures are Any 100 gamespan in shot clock era Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin McHale When Wilt Chamberlain.

• Williamson (2,524) is the 12th player in NBA history to record 2,500 points in his first 100 career games. He is the first player since Michael Jordan to achieve the feat. Others who pull it off: Chamberlain, Walt Bellamy, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul JabbarGeorge Mikan, Rick BarryElvin Hayes, Elgin Baylor, David Thompson, Billie Knight. (Thompson and Knight played in his ABA before his NBA debut.) All players except Knight are in the Hall of Fame.

• Williamson has 42 career games scoring 20 points in the restricted area. No other player in the past 25 debuting seasons has made his 10 debut in his first 100 games.

• Williamson has 1,898 career paint points. Only O’Neill has scored so many points in the paint over 100 games in the last 25 seasons.

• Williamson has played 54 career games, shooting 50% and scoring 25 points, making him the second-most player with Abdul-Jabbar in the first 100 career games of the shot-clock era. Only Bellamy has more (57).

• Williamson has scored 10 or more in 98 games. Among the players who have debuted in the last 25 seasons, Joel Embiid (98) and Blake Griffin (99) Comparable to Zion.

• Williamson scored at least 20 points in 83 of his first 100 games. This is the most players in his first 100 games since Jordan, 85.

Matt Williams of ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this article.