Getty NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley looks on while smoking a cigar during the Julius Erving Golf Classic at The ACE Club on September 11, 2017 in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania.
Some have compared New Orleans Pelicans forward, Zion Williamson to NBA Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley.
Barkley disagrees. “The kid is more explosive than I am,” Barkley told me of Williamson.
“He seems like a great kid too. He’s really explosive, he might want to learn to play basketball at a little lower level.”
Million Dollar Question: Who does Williamson play like?
On a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, I checked in with former Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard and assistant coach, Tracy Murray who makes some pretty solid insight.
Check out a snippet from our Q&A below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Yeah, that makes sense. Because when I look at Zion, I see – Rodney Rodgers is something that I never thought of because only he was more of a spot up jumper –
Tracy Murray: You got to look at him when he was in college. The real Rodney Rodgers when he was playing a little bit. He was able to post up, he was able to put the ball on the deck and score, he was able to run the fast break and dunk on somebody. He was a big body that flew a little bit. Not as high as Zion. In the League, he became a spot up. And he became kind of a post guy a little bit, he grounded his game which made him last through an 82 plus playing throughout the year. That 82 games is no joke. You know, it’s a lot of pounding. The less weight you carry, that’s how much longer you’ll last in the League. When I was heaviest, I was at 245 and I felt like my body was gonna break. I had to get back to 230-235
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: Yeah. Charles Barkley and I spoke and I asked does Zion remind him of him and he said no, and I said what about Clarence Weatherspoon and he said no. He said Shawn Kemp –
Tracy Murray: Clarence Weatherspoon reminded me of Barkley. About the same size, played in the post, could jump at their size, both of them weighed about 265, but Charles was just a different type of freak running the court than Clarence Weatherspoon.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: That’s real. Scoop B Radio on the line with Tracy Murray. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but what are you working on now?
Tracy Murray: I broadcast for UCLA. I’ve been doing it for the last eleven years. I took a break in 2015 as you stated earlier with coaching with the Lakers as a shooting coach. I even had a couple scouts that year as well. So I was trying to grow as a coach and I did 3 years in the G-League which probably enabled me to keep me on their radar, so I had experience with that. I had experience in the WNBA with the Tulsa Shock, so I’ve done some coaching. I do coaching with my brother’s AAU program Prodigy Athletic [Prodigy Elite] in the local Los Angeles area, in the Fresno area and the Rancho Cucamonga area. That’s where we have players in that area where we develop them and we coach them. Other than that man, just broadcasting at UCLA and playing it forward doing some appearances here and there, just enjoying my family being a dad. Being a dad is a blast.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You said Rancho Cucamonga. I remember the first time I heard that name it was on ‘Friday: Next Friday’ [laughing]
Tracy Murray: And that was Rancho Cucamonga to the heart too, just like that [laughs] straight like that!
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I tell you man, you are a wealth of knowledge. It is an honor to have you on and I remember when my family ran and operated a sneaker store in Harlem I would see posters of you, posters of Rex Chapman, posters of Derrick Coleman in the sneaker store. So to see that vision on the wall and to have that conversation on the podcast years later, that’s full circle for me.
Tracy Murray: You just said something that’s awesome to me. I never knew that I was on a wall in a sneaker store. You’re coming at me with some stuff – that just gives me goosebumps man, because when you play the game, you hope people remember you. You play the game. You play it for pride, you play it for respect, you play it to try to build a legacy, to be a champion and all of that. To hear some of the things you told me today, your buddy wearing the Tracy Murray jersey back then it’s just something that gives me chills and gives me a sense of accomplishment man, because when you have people to do that, they respect you as an individual and respected your game. And it’s an honor to be here and thank you for having me on and I would love to be on again when you have time.