Charles Barkley has always been critical of Zion Williamson, particularly when it comes to the New Orleans Pelicans star's eating habits. On more than a few occasions, Barkley has come out on TV to publicly call out Williamson by joking about his diet and his weight and how these factor in significantly to his injury woes.
Harsh as it may seem, the fact of the matter is that Sir Charles is speaking from experience. He too struggled with his weight during his playing days, but he managed to battle his demons to become one of the greatest power forwards of all time. Barkley just hopes Williamson is able to follow the same path:
“I wish Zion had a vet on on the team (or) a coach who could say, ‘Yo man, you gotta get in shape. You can't play basketball at your weight,'” Barkley said. “… How many players have you seen eat their way out of the NBA? A lot of them!
“I wish I could sit down with Zion and say ‘Yo man, you got so much talent but you gonna have to lose some weight and get in shape because unless you get in shape, you can't play basketball.'”
"I wish I could sit down with Zion [Williamson] and say 'yo man, you got so much talent but you gonna have to lose some weight & get in shape because unless you get in shape, you can't play basketball.'"
—Charles Barkley
(via @SiriusXMNBA)pic.twitter.com/bDwVgBVQbV
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 19, 2023
Barkley also spoke about the massive role former teammate Moses Malone played in his career. At one point in time, Malone told Barkley straight up that he was “fat and lazy.” Chuck admits that he cried when he was slapped with this hurtful truth bomb, but eventually, he sought Malone's help to lose 50 lbs. The rest, as they say, is history.
Charles Barkley knows how much talent Zion Williamson has, which is probably why he's so hard on the young Pelicans superstar. Sir Charles just doesn't want to see him waste away his phenomenal potential by eating his way out of the NBA.
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