The New Orleans Pelicans announced on Friday that star forward Zion Williamson will be out indefinitely with a broken finger and general manager David Griffin says NBA referees are to blame, claiming that they were warned about doing a better job of protecting the second-year player.

"Zion is left-handed so it's a fairly significant situation for him," Griffin told reporters. "I'm really frustrated because this was avoidable. We told the NBA through every means available to us, through sending in film, through speaking to everybody in the officials department and everybody in basketball operations, that the way they were officiating Zion was going to get him injured."

Griffin, also in his second season with the Pels, says the situation with Williamson is similar to what Shaquille O'Neal dealt with in the "Hack-A-Shaq" days.

"Quite frankly, he's injured now because of the open season there's been on Zion Williamson in the paint," Griffin said. "He's been absolutely mauled in the paint on a regular basis, to the point that other players have said to him, 'I'm going to keep doing this to you because they don't call it.' There's more violence encouraged in the paint against Zion Williamson than any player I've seen since Shaq. It was egregious and horrific then, and the same is true now."

An All-Star for the first time, the 20-year-old Williamson was averaging 27.0 points on .611 shooting, 7.2 boards and 3.7 assists in 33.2 minutes a night over 61 games this season.