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The New Orleans Pelicans will not part ways with star forward Zion Williamson after he was accused of rape and other physical abuse by a woman in a lawsuit filed last week, a team executive said in an interview Wednesday.
Joe Dumars, a Hall of Fame player who was named the Pelicans’ executive vice president of basketball operations in April, confirmed the team’s decision in an interview with The New Orleans Times-Picayune Wednesday, adding Williamson will “continue to be a focal point” of the organization.
“I’ve had really good conversations with Zion,” Dumars told the outlet. “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 continued. “He’s going to continue to be a focal point here as we go forward.”
Dumars made his comments less than a week after a woman, who claimed to be in a relationship with Williamson while he played at Duke, filed a lawsuit alleging that the two-time NBA All-Star engaged in a “pattern of abusive, controlling, and threatening behavior,” according to reports.
The lawsuit accused Williamson of rape on two separate occasions in 2020.
According to the New York Post, in one instance, the woman claimed Williamson “picked her up, threw her down to the ground, and pinned her shoulders down so she could not move,” and then he allegedly “violently raped Plaintiff in multiple ways.”
She also claimed Williamson used abusive language when she refused to be intimate with him.
PELICANS STAR ZION WILLIAMSON FACES RAPE, ABUSE ALLEGATIONS IN NEW LAWSUIT
Williamson denied the allegations in a statement from his attorneys that called the lawsuit “an attempt to exploit a professional athlete driven by a financial motive rather than any legitimate grievance.”
“We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and we unequivocally deny them. The allegations contained in the complaint are categorically false and reckless,” the statement said.
Williamson’s attorneys said they plan to file counterclaims and “seek significant damages for this defamatory lawsuit.”
Dumars told The Times-Picayune he had “been advised not to venture into any of his legal issues,” but team owner Gayle Benson addressed the matter Tuesday, saying, “Lawsuits are lawsuits.”
“People can sue you for anything. There’s no, there’s no reason,” she said, via WWL-TV. “You can be innocent or not, so it’s just something that people do, unfortunately.”
Williamson, 24, was the first overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Despite a career marred by a lengthy injury history, Williamson has averaged 24.7 points per game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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