Golden State Coach Don Nelson minced no words after last season. He wanted weight. Not ordinary weight. He wanted bone-crushing, earth-moving, pulverizing weight. He looked at several possibilities, including 275-pound University of Utah forward Walter Watts and enormous 300-pound Victor Alexander from Iowa State. Nelson ended up drafting Alexander and signing him to a contract.
Nelson wasn't alone in his search for girth. From Philadelphia to Portland, Orlando to San Francisco, everyone in the NBA wants size inside. And they're willing to take risks. "If you're going to make a mistake," said Jazz President Frank Layden, "you might as well make it a big mistake."Get out a bucket of chicken and the truck scales. The trend these days is to chance it on a talented but overweight prospect and try to get him in shape. It may be preferable to have chiseled granite, i.e. Jazz forward Karl Malone, but for the moment teams are willing to settle for molded gelatin.
"That's where the league has changed," said Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan. "Before, you'd never waste your time with those guys. Now you've got to invest some time into them and you may get a return. It's just so hard to find big guys."
The tonnage is adding up. Orlando has rookie Stanley Roberts, who rumbled into training camp weighing 300 pounds. Washington owns John "Hot Plate" Williams, suspended by the Bullets at the start of the season for weighing in at 305. Portland has 280-pound Kevin Duckworth, a proven player who admits he still fights to keep his weight in check.
In Sacramento they're crossing their fingers, hoping 7-foot-2 Dwayne Schintzius - 10 pounds overweight and out of shape - slims down and tones up. San Antonio gave up last summer and traded him to Sacramento for veteran Antoine Carr, who appears himself to have struck a recent deal with Dolly Madison. Phoenix veteran Ed Nealy constantly hovers on one side of pudgy or the other. Former Detroit and Philadelphia bad boy Rick Mahorn made a living moving people around with his large backside before departing for Europe.
The Jazz have their own concerns. Rookie center Isaac Austin, who weighed up to 300 pounds at Arizona State, went on a grilled chicken sandwich, salad and juice diet last fall and worked out rigorously to shed unwanted pounds. "He's got some skills," said Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan. "But it's up to him to see if he wants to play bad enough to get himself ready."
Though Austin was overweight, he had enviable abilities: good hands, mobility and unusually soft touch for a big man. But as any coach will admit, there's a, um, thin line between being fat and being big in the trenches of the NBA.
Austin lost about 23 pounds early in training camp and reduced his body fat significantly, but regained four or five pounds recently, according to Sloan. "That's (weight) going to determine whether he wants to play," said Sloan. "One thing I can't do is eat for him."
With an increasing number of wide-body players in the league, fat jokes are making the rounds. For example: How do you get Duckworth, Roberts, Alexander and Williams into a phone booth all at once? Answer: Toss in a Twinkie.
Roberts is the inspiration for many of the full-figured remarks. "Stanley thinks a balanced meal is a Big Mac in each hand," said Orlando G. M. Pat Williams.
Along with the above quip, Sports Illustrated ran a series of Williams wisecracks regarding Roberts:
- "We got him started eating the seven basic food groups, and now there are only three left."
- "Stanley's Florida driver's license says, `Photo continued on other side.' " - "Whoever said no man is an island never saw Stanley in a swimming pool."
- "Stanley's two favorite things are eating and watching TV, so we decided to combine the two, and now he's eating out of his satellite dish."
Roberts is reportedly on a special diet, prepared by a chef and a nutritionist, that will cost him a $12,000 this season. "At least," Roberts told the Orlando Sentinel, "I don't have to worry about cooking."
When Roberts dropped to a shade under 300 pounds, Williams joked, "He's getting thin. His pajamas only have one stripe now. When he goes to the movies, he won't be able to hold the seat down."
Each time a team takes a risk on a Roberts or Alexander - big people with obvious skills - there is the hope a Charles Barkley will emerge. A perennial All-Star, Barkley weighed 290 (at only 6-foot-41/2) when he left Auburn for the NBA in 1984, billed as the "Round Mound of Rebound." Now he works out year-round and weighs a mean 250.
"Barkley had good credentials out of college, but as a rookie I worried that he would injure his knee, he was so flabby," said Layden.
Though NBA big men often find themselves struggling with equatorial slide, some manage their weight well enough to thrive. Duckworth was considered as a draft choice by the Milwaukee Bucks until a psychological test predicted he didn't have enough motivation to make himself a good player and lose weight. The Bucks passed on the 300-pound Duckworth, who was subsequently drafted by the Spurs.
Now a two-time All-Star with the Blazers, Duckworth proved them wrong. But he still has a weight clause in his contract stipulating he can be fined if he gets over a certain limit.
Washington's Williams is the worst case scenario. He was suspended before the season began for showing up at a reported 305 pounds - about 40 above the hoped-for weight. The NBA Register lists him at 235. Williams is disputing whether the Bullets have the right to suspend him for his weight. He hasn't played a game this year.
Theories vary as to why players can't motivate themselves to get into the kind of shape that will make them millions. "Money should be an incentive for most people. But in most cases these athletes have been catered to since high school. They've been given jobs they don't need to show up for by alumni. Maybe a few of them draw the conclusion they should get paid for not working," Bullets' G.M. John Nash told the Baltimore Evening Sun.
"We have one of those who expects to be paid for not working . . . ."
Layden has another consideration. "Big guys aren't always lazy, but they grow up where things come easy. They're always the biggest kid in the class, the biggest kid on the block. And everyone always picks them first. Things come to them without always having to work that hard."
Golden State's Alexander has apparently fared better than some, averaging 17 minutes a game for the Warriors. But he continues to wage war against unsightly bulge. He visited the Pritican Longevity Center in California, which helps change lifestyles through proper diet and conditioning. His weight dropped to around 275. (Pritican is also where Nelson goes to shed his pounds after a season of restaurant and airplane dining.)
Nelson wasn't completely satisfied by Alexander's progress. He told Alexander to get down to 265 by Dec. 7. The rookie forward didn't make the deadline and was dropped from the starting lineup. He now weighs about 270, but coaches are pleased with the way he is playing.
"I've made some promises to Coach Nelson that I would work hard to get my weight down. During my college years the weight thing wasn't a big thing. I was getting my 25 points a game. I understand now that I have to lose weight to make it at this level," Alexander said.
Said Nelson, "He was one of the best inside scorers in the entire draft," said Nelson. "The game is easy for Victor. He plays it easy, and he plays it well."
And some play it the hard way. Former Jazzman "Dinner Bell" Mel Turpin, a skilled inside player, ate himself into a job in Spain in 1988. Layden said he once talked with Turpin's junior high coach, who said Turpin had the same troubles as a youth. "He (Turpin) wanted to be somewhere else," said Layden.
Whatever the risks in this weighty matter, teams are willing to take them. As they say in the diet commercials, there's a great new person inside there just waiting to get out. "It's definitely worth the risk. It's not like there's a whole lot of (big guys) out there," observed Jazz forward Karl Malone.
It seems when it comes to players with circumference, there's just not enough to go around.