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Pro Basketball Hall of Famer and current Inside The NBA analyst Charles Barkley wants to mentor New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson about losing weight and staying in shape.
During a recent episode of his podcast The Steam Room, Barkley said that he needs someone in his corner telling him to get in shape and that he would “love” to be the one to do it.
“We’ve never met. You gotta get somebody in your ear,” Barkley said on a recent episode of The Steam Room, the podcast he does with his pal and Inside The NBA co-host Ernie Johnson.
“I don’t think the coach has enough power to tell you what to do. I don’t think David Griffin, who’s a friend of mine, has enough power to tell you what to do. But somebody gotta tell you like, ‘Yo, man, you gotta get in shape.’ Cause you’re gonna keep getting hurt if you’re out of shape.”
Johnson then followed up by asking if Barkley would be willing to mentor Williamson in the same way that Moses Malone — who he “thanks god every day for” — famously did him.
“I would love to,” Barkley responded.
The thing with Charles Barkley is that while he may be outspoken and, in addition to his buddy Shaq, quick to clown on NBA players, he’s also incredibly genuine, so you know he means everything he’s saying about Zion, who played in just 29 games this season.
So far during his NBA career, out of a possible 246 regular season games across three seasons, Williamson — the former #1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft — has appeared in just 114 of them, which means injuries have cost him over half of his career thus far.
When he has been on the court, however, Williamson has been an All-Star caliber player as he currently has career averages of 25.8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game.