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The incandescent smile that disappeared from Zion Williamson’s face last month the moment the New Orleans Pelicans lucked into the No. 1 draft pick was back on Wednesday as Williamson claimed that he never actually had a preferred team. Not the Knicks, or anyone else.

“I’m just a simple dude,” he said to reporters. “Just want to hoop.”

If Williamson harbored any disappointment about New Orleans, his likely rookie destination in the N.B.A., he wasn’t about to admit it to people who would immediately broadcast his every word.

“That’s a situation where the media is affecting your opinion,” he said in Midtown Manhattan, heart of the nation’s so-called media capital.

Everyone else’s opinion, he meant. Not his.

True or not, if Williamson has been paying close attention to the news-making machine that is the N.B.A., and in particular to the recent undertakings of the remade New Orleans franchise, he must realize by now that the very best players eventually get what they want, and where.