Charles Barkley On How Moses Malone Changed His Career: “I Wasn’t In Good Shape And I Said ‘Moses Can I Come And Talk To You?’ And He Said ‘Come On Up Big Fella.’ And I Said ‘Why I Am Not Getting To Play?’ And He Said ‘Charles You’re Fat And You’re Lazy.’ He Said ‘You Fat And You Lazy And You Lazy Because You Are Fat.'”
Charles Barkley has revealed how important Moses Malone was for his career. The player was out of shape when he first entered the league and didn’t seem to care too much about his fitness; that’s when the legendary player showed up and guided Barkley to become the great player he was during his active days.
Talking with Bill Simmons on his podcast, Barkley discussed a variety of topics, including Zion Williamson, Adam Silver, and even the highly-anticipated matchup between the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers. When he had to talk about Malone’s mentorship and how that helped his NBA career, Barkley went deep and expressed how grateful he was with the legend.
Via Reddit:
“Well, you know he was the most important person in my career because he got me in shape when I first got to the NBA. I was 295 somewhere there. I played in college always between 290-300. I was in college for 3 years and lead the sec in rebounds for 3 years, and When I got to NBA I wasn’t in good shape, and I remember me and Moses lived in the same building and I went upstairs and said ‘Moses can I come up and talk to you tonight’ and he said ‘come on up big fella’ and I said ‘why I am not getting to play?’ and Moses when he speaks everyone listens, he didn’t say a lot but when he spoke everyone listened, and he said ‘Charles you’re fat and you’re lazy,’ and I’m like what, and he said ‘you fat and you lazy and you lazy because you are fat’. And after I stopped crying, he said ‘Charles you got a lot of talent but you not in good enough shape to work hard,’ and this guy met me before practice and after practice and I lost 10 pounds to get to 290 and he said ‘let’s keep going’ and I get to 280, 270, 260, 250 which is what I played at, and if this old guy hadn’t taken the time to take care of a little fat kid from Alabama I might have ate myself out of the NBA. And I’ve seen that happen to a bunch of guys over my career who couldn’t get their weight under control and so I tell people by far and away the most important person in my career. But I am also proud of myself for listening to him, you know, Bill, a lot of our kids don’t listen to old people, they think we are full of shit, I’m glad I was smart enough to listen to Moses and the rest was history.”
Barkley would go to win an NBA MVP award and play in the Finals, just not with the Sixers. He has always credited Malone for his success, even dedicating some big words for him after his tragic passing in 2015. Chuck said he was who he was thanks to Moses and he really appreciated the fact that his mentor never voiced how much he helped him to succeed in the association.
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