Zion Williamson On Fat Shaming

It’s been fun watching Zion Williamson this season. He’s put himself into supreme condition and he’s been a bear for everyone to deal with.

As we know now, the time off to heal from his injury was difficult, not just because he wasn’t able to play, but because people endlessly mocked him.

In this article, Williamson talks about how difficult it was for him to be fat shamed.

”What people don’t understand is, even the writers and stuff, if they have children of their own, imagine if somebody talked about their child how they spoke about me. Critiquing my body, critiquing how I look. Every time they talked about me, it was about weight. I don’t even think they realized what kind of impact that can have on you.”

There are a couple of things here. First, he’s right. It’s not a decent way to behave and no one should mock people for their physical appearance.

The unfortunate truth though is that people do mock other people, and regularly. Just this past weekend, Kevin Porter Jr. mocked Williamson’s teammate Jose Alvarado for being small.

Part of the reality of being an entertainer is you have to deal with the fans, not to mention the media, and whatever they throw at you (looking at you, Shaq and Chuck).

He’s correct - it’s wrong. But it’s a hard thing to stop. It’s just something you have to deal with when you’re a major public figure. No one gets out unscathed.