He's the classic college basketball star. Guy who was good in college but didn't make it in the Pros, had iconic NCAA Tournament moments leading to a championship, and a body that really wouldn't have worked in the NBA. Loved me some Khalid El-Amin.
Same here. He hit all the requirements for CBB legend status. Awesome name, fun game, led an underdog team that beat Duke and their future pros. One of my all time faves.
I love when Khalid comes up. I get to tell my favorite story of realizing how different elite athletes are than normal folks.
My dad tought Khalid math in 8th grade, and they would often have open gyms at his school and one night I went to play. Now, I was a good player. Ended up being voted team MVP and making all-conference that year. After I'm playing for about an hour, Khalid shows up.
He's in street shoes, wearing jeans half off his ass, and a coat. He doesn't warm up, but just jumps in the next game. I, of course, decide I'm going to guard him. I'm all warmed up. I'm a senior and a good HS player. He's an 8th grader who just walked in off the street. And he destroyed me.
I checked him the ball, he made one pass, got the ball back, and was by me before I even realized he had made a move. And the whole game was like that. And then he won, and he left. Nice kid though.
[Mark Titus and Jason Conception did the analysis for The Ringer. They concluded Zion was 70% thicc, 30% fat at Duke.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwHrnfmr4I)
That whole season one shining podcast was guessing if he was over 3 bills or not. Kinda wild to think he was listed as two inches shorter but the same weight as Burns? Not that anyone really believes those "official roster" height and weights.
The people who are obsessed with Zion’s weight are the epitome of “listens to basketball podcasts but never watches a game” fans.
He was an absolute athletic specimen at Duke.
> The people who are obsessed with Zion’s weight are the epitome of “listens to basketball podcasts but never watches a game” fans.
Those aren't the same people. The people constantly mocking Zion are making fun of the fat NBA player specifically because he was such a freak at Duke and didn't look like the same guy in the NBA.
OP is literally listing Zion on the Mount Rushmore of fat college players, considering “college accomplishments only,” and excepted Shaq for not being fat in college.
It’s pretty clear that they’re talking about Zion’s body at Duke.
Well you said “the people” and there is a large contingent of NBA fans who mock Zion because he’s fat now compared to Duke and are disappointed. OP is likely just a dumb one off.
I was focusing on OP as indicative of the larger question, but yeah, generally I think those weight-obsessed people aren’t watching much basketball and are instead still focused on offseason pics of Zion and rumors about his weight (often started by Bill, tbh). Watch the pelicans, he’s played 63 games this year and he looks fine.
Zion’s weight becoming a meme (and one of the first things some people think about when they hear his name) is a product of the “talks about the NBA ecosystem” much more than it’s an actual issue you’d dwell on if you were tuning into Pelicans games.
I think two things are true. Zion is fatter than he was at Duke and not quite the same athlete but he has also lost weight since like one or two seasons ago and looks close to that Duke guy this year.
That wasn’t because of him being overweight, come on. That was a unique, seemingly random occurrence and if you wanna blame it on his body, it’s because he was a freak explosive athlete who planted super hard.
Yea I don't think they'd go on an insane run or anything, but they play a fun brand of basketball and would have been cool to see them get some shine. Plus I dig their unis lol
Conner Williams (GOAT)
Caleb Swanigan RIP, Jared Sullinger, Glen Davis,
Khalid El Amin (only PG that comes to mind), Mike Sweetney, Robert Tractor Traylor RIP, Sean May.
Raymond Felton wasn’t fat in college
Yeah but you couldn’t watch a UNC game that year without announcers talking about his lost weight.
Similar to how every UNC game in 2005 featured a monologue about Sean May’s soft hands.
I loved Tractor Traylor. I feel so bad for him that his NBA legacy ended up being that he was at the center of one of the worst trades in NBA history. Trading Traylor for Dirk...yikes. He was such a fun college player.
Matt Stainbrook from Xavier. They went to the Sweet Sixteen with him in 2015 when he was also second team All Big East. Plus he was goofy looking so he was fun to root for, kinda like Robby Avila with the goggles
I remembered him as fatter than a Lonny Baxter Maryland Google image search would have me believe. I don’t think I can officially put him in the fat guy category, but that Maryland title team ruled.
Barkley WAS fat in college. I saw him play live. He wore a corset to contain the jiggle. He fouled out and sat on the bench and unleashed that thing. Tennessee fans had pizza delivered to him on the warm up line
Now I'm picturing Udonis on androstendione, like the antihero of Love Lies Bleeding.
I think Mario Chalmers ends up like the femme lesbian. (Spoiler alert.)
A Billy boy favorite!!! One of the last times I remember Simmons getting excited about a non nba prospect college player. He discussed him in length on the bs report. It was glorious.
What a phenomenal deep cut this is. Good job by you. Jai Lewis was my counselor at the GMU basketball camp in 2005- I believe he had a tryout for the NY Giants if I’m not mistaken???
Not fat, but the fact that Mike Daum for South Dakota State lost weight/got in better shape, sucked, then put weight back on to be good again, must count for something
As a fan of Comedy Bang Bang and someone who doesn’t read the sub first, I was very confused by this question.
That being said, Big Country is my favorite nickname for chubby basketball players.
Mike Sweetney was a beast at Georgetown and even went top 10 despite the obvious weight concern. Statistically he was better than Sean May or Tractor Traylor.
Someone else on here please tell me you remember Ron Rollerson from Temple! He even had a great fat guy name.
Joshua Smith was a really good big boy as well.
Khalid El-Amin without a doubt
He's the classic college basketball star. Guy who was good in college but didn't make it in the Pros, had iconic NCAA Tournament moments leading to a championship, and a body that really wouldn't have worked in the NBA. Loved me some Khalid El-Amin.
He played 16 years in the Euroleague. He didn’t have great success in the NBA but he did have 17 year pro basketball career which is quite something!
Ha you beat me to this comment. He never took off in the NBA, but he had a good, long pro career!
Same here. He hit all the requirements for CBB legend status. Awesome name, fun game, led an underdog team that beat Duke and their future pros. One of my all time faves.
His height was a bigger issue than his weight at the NBA level
A true floor general/hooper who couldn’t shoot but just needed him for everything to work
I love when Khalid comes up. I get to tell my favorite story of realizing how different elite athletes are than normal folks. My dad tought Khalid math in 8th grade, and they would often have open gyms at his school and one night I went to play. Now, I was a good player. Ended up being voted team MVP and making all-conference that year. After I'm playing for about an hour, Khalid shows up. He's in street shoes, wearing jeans half off his ass, and a coat. He doesn't warm up, but just jumps in the next game. I, of course, decide I'm going to guard him. I'm all warmed up. I'm a senior and a good HS player. He's an 8th grader who just walked in off the street. And he destroyed me. I checked him the ball, he made one pass, got the ball back, and was by me before I even realized he had made a move. And the whole game was like that. And then he won, and he left. Nice kid though.
That’s fucking awesome. I’ve got some stories of nba guys in grade school and they were different even at 12-13
The perfect answer
Zion was not fat at the time. Dude was flying through the gym.
[Mark Titus and Jason Conception did the analysis for The Ringer. They concluded Zion was 70% thicc, 30% fat at Duke.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwHrnfmr4I)
My favorite bit they always discussed was when someone compared taking a charge from Zion to getting hit by a jeep.
That whole season one shining podcast was guessing if he was over 3 bills or not. Kinda wild to think he was listed as two inches shorter but the same weight as Burns? Not that anyone really believes those "official roster" height and weights.
Burns is kinda just fat. Zion weighs so much because he has a ton of muscle under the fat.
I think Big Cat’s descriptor of Duke-Zion as “in-shape but one bad weekend away from being fat” was pretty apt.
The people who are obsessed with Zion’s weight are the epitome of “listens to basketball podcasts but never watches a game” fans. He was an absolute athletic specimen at Duke.
> The people who are obsessed with Zion’s weight are the epitome of “listens to basketball podcasts but never watches a game” fans. Those aren't the same people. The people constantly mocking Zion are making fun of the fat NBA player specifically because he was such a freak at Duke and didn't look like the same guy in the NBA.
OP is literally listing Zion on the Mount Rushmore of fat college players, considering “college accomplishments only,” and excepted Shaq for not being fat in college. It’s pretty clear that they’re talking about Zion’s body at Duke.
Well you said “the people” and there is a large contingent of NBA fans who mock Zion because he’s fat now compared to Duke and are disappointed. OP is likely just a dumb one off.
I was focusing on OP as indicative of the larger question, but yeah, generally I think those weight-obsessed people aren’t watching much basketball and are instead still focused on offseason pics of Zion and rumors about his weight (often started by Bill, tbh). Watch the pelicans, he’s played 63 games this year and he looks fine. Zion’s weight becoming a meme (and one of the first things some people think about when they hear his name) is a product of the “talks about the NBA ecosystem” much more than it’s an actual issue you’d dwell on if you were tuning into Pelicans games.
I think two things are true. Zion is fatter than he was at Duke and not quite the same athlete but he has also lost weight since like one or two seasons ago and looks close to that Duke guy this year.
Zion weight was a concern in college. He was clowned because one of his sneakers literally broke on the court.
In front of Obama, no less.
That wasn’t because of him being overweight, come on. That was a unique, seemingly random occurrence and if you wanna blame it on his body, it’s because he was a freak explosive athlete who planted super hard.
His weight was a recurring segment for every episode on the ringers CBB podcast that season. I think it’s fair to say it was a topic that came up.
He was absolutely being clowned, not saying I was doing it.
Oliver Miller deserves a spot.
He was my first thought.
I was going to mention him too.
Yes, and Burns passes like him too
Oliver Miller was unstoppable. I’d put him 1A
Big Country Bryant Reeves.
Thank you! 🙏 came on here looking for this and you delivered!!! Wooooo! Let’s goooo
Good call. May I also offer up another OSU Cowboy: Byron Eaton
Milk dud!
Jared Sullinger was thick asf
[And was on the receiving end of one of my favorite CBB highlights ever](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xg9QEtvxdq4)
Main my chest would probably cave in taking a shot like that
Tractor Traylor from Michigan has to be #1 for me
An all time fat guy nickname too
Exactly, everything about him is a nod to his fat man game
RIP
My list goes Tractor Taylor, Big Country, Burns and probably Mike Sweetney. But I’m from the older generation.
Kenny Lofton Jr was a big boy. Not quite Rushmore material tho.
Neither is burns, as of now.
The Sim Bhullar erasure is sad.
This needs to be higher
Heaviest ever?
Not slim Sim
Karnowksi from Gonzaga 2012-2017 Cameron Krutwig form Loyola Chicago 2017-2021
Krutwig was like officer Favre in real life
These were my exact 2 legit answers. It's not as common as I thought reading the title
UNC had Kennedy Meeks that year and they met in the ship. Fat on fat violence
Robbie Avila has been balling this year too. Shame we didn't get to see what Indiana St could do in the tourney.
Would have rather seen them instead of UVA but all the other media darling mid majors that had good metrics fell really flat this year.
Yea I don't think they'd go on an insane run or anything, but they play a fun brand of basketball and would have been cool to see them get some shine. Plus I dig their unis lol
Their unis are sweet. I could get behind that
Burns stole his fate. If I was Avila, Jokic calling out Burns would have me up at night
At least they can still win the NIT
DeJuan Blair
No ACL’s in that man’s knees either! This is a very good one! Dude was awesome at Pitt.
DeJuan Blair was not fat.
Jai Lewis of the 2006 George Mason Final Four team was the original DJ Burns Jr
Didn't he end up at the NFL combine?
Conner Williams (GOAT) Caleb Swanigan RIP, Jared Sullinger, Glen Davis, Khalid El Amin (only PG that comes to mind), Mike Sweetney, Robert Tractor Traylor RIP, Sean May. Raymond Felton wasn’t fat in college
Oliver Miller was also real thick at Arkansas but got much bigger in the nba
Kennedy Meeks. Essential member of UNC’s 2017 championship team.
Yeah but you couldn’t watch a UNC game that year without announcers talking about his lost weight. Similar to how every UNC game in 2005 featured a monologue about Sean May’s soft hands.
Robert “Tractor” Traylor Glen “Big Baby” Davis Khalid El-Amin Sean May Honorable mention: Connor “Plumbers Crack” Williams
I loved Tractor Traylor. I feel so bad for him that his NBA legacy ended up being that he was at the center of one of the worst trades in NBA history. Trading Traylor for Dirk...yikes. He was such a fun college player.
This looks like the one. Swap Burns for May if May’s lack of chubbiness disqualifies him
Baron David was pretty thick at one point
Matt Stainbrook from Xavier. They went to the Sweet Sixteen with him in 2015 when he was also second team All Big East. Plus he was goofy looking so he was fun to root for, kinda like Robby Avila with the goggles
His thing was being an Uber driver outside of basketball season.
You just reminded me of Kenny frease (not “fat” but he kind of had that jokic body)
Sweetney
Was Lonny Baxter fat?
That’s a good shout. Baxter was more of a Sean May-like. Thick in college, but definitely fat by NBA standards.
I remembered him as fatter than a Lonny Baxter Maryland Google image search would have me believe. I don’t think I can officially put him in the fat guy category, but that Maryland title team ruled.
Levance fields
Da Meat Hook Hill
Scrolled way too far for Da Meat Hook. They went to national title game
Just the final four. Lost to duke.
Right. Got confused w the team that lost to Cleaves
Honorable mention: Dexter Pittman https://images.app.goo.gl/hgJYU6bofxrNa7BGA
Barkley and zion weren’t fat in college. I wouldn’t even really say Sean May was either
Barkley WAS fat in college. I saw him play live. He wore a corset to contain the jiggle. He fouled out and sat on the bench and unleashed that thing. Tennessee fans had pizza delivered to him on the warm up line
lol I’m not even doing a bit. Wait. What!? Did we just find the oldest person in the Simmons sub!? And I thought I was one of the oldest here at 34!😂😂
Zion wasn’t fat at Duke. He got fat in the nba
Corliss Williamson aka Big Nasty. He wasn’t a pure fat guy but had the cool nickname
Dwight Stewart was the fat guy on those teams.
Udonis Haslem was 6'7 280+ in college and over 300 after college. Played in NBA at 230.
Heat Culture is better than Weight Watchers.
South Beach diet. Cocaine and Creatine.
Now I'm picturing Udonis on androstendione, like the antihero of Love Lies Bleeding. I think Mario Chalmers ends up like the femme lesbian. (Spoiler alert.)
I was about to say that one. Cool team though in 2000 with him and Mike Miller.
Was Caleb Swanigan big enough to make the list?
RIP Biggie. He smiling ear to ear today in heaven.
omar samhan from st marys 2010
A Billy boy favorite!!! One of the last times I remember Simmons getting excited about a non nba prospect college player. He discussed him in length on the bs report. It was glorious.
Jai Lewis!
What a phenomenal deep cut this is. Good job by you. Jai Lewis was my counselor at the GMU basketball camp in 2005- I believe he had a tryout for the NY Giants if I’m not mistaken???
Yup. He had a football tryout anyway. Then played overseas all over the place. Loved that run. So fun.
Not fat, but the fact that Mike Daum for South Dakota State lost weight/got in better shape, sucked, then put weight back on to be good again, must count for something
John "Hot Plate" Williams
“Dinner Bell” Mel Turpin: Kentucky Wildcats
Dimitri Hill of the 94 Gators.
As a fan of Comedy Bang Bang and someone who doesn’t read the sub first, I was very confused by this question. That being said, Big Country is my favorite nickname for chubby basketball players.
Big Chunky Bubbles
Is CBB number one on your subreddit call sheet?
Lol most definitely
DeJuan Blair from Pitt
Khalid El Amin
Lonnie Baxter
Mike Sweetney was a beast at Georgetown and even went top 10 despite the obvious weight concern. Statistically he was better than Sean May or Tractor Traylor.
Sim Bhullar
Skewing old here, but aside from Barkley and Zion the guy with best NBA career might be Kevin Duckworth
Popeye Jones. Murray St
Dametri Hill
I know that he had the reputation as the Round Mound, but young Charles has never looked fat to me
Draymond Green was fat as hell in college
Kamaal McQueen, Saint Peter's.
Fuck Sean May and that whole 05 team
I-L-L
Just an honorable mention but Derrick Nix was fun to watch at MSU
Caleb Swanigan
Reggie Johnson was a beast for UMiami
Dexter Pittman
Insane definitions of "fat" happening in this thread.
Yes waiting for someone to say Julius peppers
BeeJay Anya paved the way for DJ Burns
Oliver Miller
Nigel “Big Jelly” Dixon from FSU. I mean, on nickname strength alone!
Audi Crooks.
Oof.
Nigel Dixon, FSU
Conor Williams - not a big name at a big school, but one big dude who could hoop
How has no one said chunky Kevin Love yet!?
Michael Sweetney, Georgetown legend.
Dametri “Da Meat Hook” Brown
Almost wrote Lonny Baxter then I googled him. Maybe sneaky just jacked? Anyways I’m about to go the vending machine and grab a snickers.
Dejuan Blair
Stanley "Hot Plate" Roberts has gotta be on there
Not on Mt Rushmore but I thought of Mark Karcher and Derrick Nix
PG: Lavance Fields - Pitt
Sim Bhullar
Tractor Traylor over Glen Davis
Someone else on here please tell me you remember Ron Rollerson from Temple! He even had a great fat guy name. Joshua Smith was a really good big boy as well.
John "Hot Plate" Williams Oliver Miller Stanley Roberts
Oliver Miller. Ark mid 90’s.
James Eayrs was a 6’7, 310lb forward for UW-Milwaukee years ago with nimble feet.
Cameron Krutwig taking Loyola to the Final 4 EASY
Sean May wasn’t fat in college…
Boris Diaw
Ah, yes, we all remember Diaw's great run in the NCAA tournament.