All of the NBA universe have been spending the past 24 hours mourning the loss of ‘The Chairman of the Boards’ Moses Malone, who died at the age of 60.
One of the best stories about the Rebounding legend has been from Charles Barkley, who was drafted by the Sixers at a time where the Sixers were predominantly a veteran team (a far cry from today’s Sixers). Barkley didn’t have the best Rookie start, starting games on the bench, not getting much time.
But with ‘no nonsense’ mentoring from Malone, Barkley got into shape and ended the season in the All-Rookie 1st team.
“I pulled Moses aside and asked him, ‘Why am I not playing more?’” Barkley recalled on Sunday.
Malone turned, looked him up and down and declared, “You’re fat and you’re lazy, that’s why. You can’t play basketball if you’re not in shape.”
Moses instructed the rookie to lose 10 pounds, then told him to meet him at the gym an hour ahead of practice the following morning. For the next month, he trained Barkley before and after the team workouts. Barkley shed 15 pounds in a week’s time and started to notice a difference in his stamina.
“So now I’m playing a little bit,” Barkley said, “and Moses says to me, ‘Lose 10 more.’ I get down to 275 and I’m close to breaking into the starting lineup and the big man tells me, ‘Ten more. Give me 10 more.’ By the time he was done with me, I was down to 255 pounds.”
“He never said anything about what he did for me,” Barkley said. “Most guys, when they mentor a young player like that, they go around saying, ‘Yeah, that was me. I did that.’ Not Moses. He never told anybody. And that was the best part.”
Once Malone retired, whenever Barkley saw his old teammate, which was a handful of times a season, he always greeted him in the same manner: “Hey, Dad!“
I just love stories like this, you rarely see the classic veteran mentor/Rookie pupil relationship. And for a Hall Of Famer mentoring a young buck, that’s just great, unselfish attitude.
Rest in peace Mr Malone.
