{"id":605874,"date":"2026-04-14T08:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605874\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T08:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T08:31:12","slug":"zion-williamson-expresses-frustration-over-missing-nba-playoffs-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605874\/","title":{"rendered":"Zion Williamson Expresses Frustration Over Missing NBA Playoffs Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since getting drafted by the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> in 2019, Zion Williamson<\/a> has yet to experience the NBA<\/a> playoffs. The Pelicans have appeared in the postseason twice<\/a> over the past seven seasons. However, Williamson has never been a part of it since he’s usually injured.<\/p>\n

Williamson’s lack of postseason experience has begun to irritate him as the 2025\u201326 NBA season draws to a close. Out of everyone who has played at least five years in the league, the former Duke<\/a> star is the only player who has not suited up in the playoffs. Even his teammates, Trey Murphy III and Saddiq Bey, who were both drafted a year after him, were able to play after the regular season.<\/p>\n

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Zion Williamson Will Reach Out to NBA Legends to Help His Postseason Goals Next Season\"New<\/p>\n

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson (1)Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Williamson addressed his frustration about not having experienced playoff basketball on Monday, during the team’s exit interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to experience the playoffs,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cI haven\u2019t experienced the playoffs, and it\u2019s something that I would love to experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing my resources to reach out to other Hall of Famers, reach out to other championship players, reach out to greats and see what their journey was like. Because I would like to play in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt’s frustrating getting up here every year and not being in the playoffs,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd I take my responsibility in that. I\u2019ve definitely held myself accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williamson appeared in 62 games this season, the second-most games played in his career. The NBA star tried his best to be available for the Pelicans, and he finished the campaign averaging 21.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists on 60.0% shooting.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans tried to reach the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference to qualify for the play-in tournament when veteran guard Dejounte Murray returned in February. However, they came up short and finished in 11th spot.<\/p>\n

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It’s a good sign for the Pelicans to have Williamson play at least 60 games. The last time he reached that mark was in the 2023-24 season, when he appeared in 70 games. But even though he played the most games of his career that season, the injury bug got to him before the start of the first-round of the playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Williamson suffered a hamstring injury, and he remained optimistic<\/a> that he would return to the lineup during the postseason. However, it never occurred, as the Thunder easily defeated the Pelicans, sweeping them in the opening round.<\/p>\n

Related: Zion Williamson’s Injury Status for Lakers-Pelicans After 1 Missed Game<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since getting drafted by the New Orleans Pelicans in 2019, Zion Williamson has yet to experience the NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,43115,590,7210,5548,7215,85,147772,62610,7226],"class_list":{"0":"post-605874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dejounte-murray","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","13":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","14":"tag-saddiq-bey","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-the-pelicans","17":"tag-trey-murphy-iii","18":"tag-zion-williamson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}