Zion Williamson Gets Support From Pelicans Executive After Rape Allegations

The New Orleans Pelicans’ plans for Zion Williamson’s future with the organization have not changed despite the recent rape allegations made against him.

While the new executive vice president of basketball operations, Joe Dumars, said he had been “advised not to venture into any of his legal issues” in an interview with the Times-Picayune, he made it clear the team intends to build around its former No. 1 overall pick.

“I’ve had really good conversations with Zion,” Dumars said Wednesday. “We’ve had lunch. Dinner. Watched playoff games together. We’ve done it all. I’ve had some real, honest conversations with him. Some real, direct and honest conversations. … We’re going to go forward with Zion. He’s going to continue to be a focal point here as we go forward.”

Williamson’s standing with the organization came into question following the rape allegations made against him in a lawsuit filed last week by a woman claiming to be his ex-girlfriend.

The woman alleges the star forward raped her twice in 2020 and “continued to abuse, rape, assault and batter plaintiff” until their relationship ended in 2023.

On September 23, 2020, the woman alleges Williamson “pinned Plaintiff down on the bed with her hands behind her back and raped her” after she refused to have sex with him.

Roughly one month later, on October 10, amid a discussion about the woman possibly visiting a friend, Williamson is alleged to have “picked her up, threw her down to the ground, and pinned her shoulders down so she could not move,” and then “violently raped Plaintiff in many ways.”

The woman is seeking between $18 million to $50 million.

The star forward denied the allegations, and his legal counsel said they planned to file counterclaims and “seek significant damages for this defamatory lawsuit.”

“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and we unequivocally deny them. The allegations contained in the complaint are categorically false and reckless,” Williamson’s legal counsel told The Post in late May. “This is the plaintiff’s third set of attorneys. This appears to be an attempt to exploit a professional athlete driven by a financial motive rather than any legitimate grievance.”