Charlie Villanueva Cut From Dominican Team for Being Overweight

By Andrew Fisher

Charlie Villanueva will not be playing for the Dominican Republic national team this summer. Head coach John Calipari informed him of the news, and made the following comment:

“After dealing with injuries for the entire lockout-shortened season for the Pistons, he didn’t play any significant minutes. He won’t play for the Dominican Republic national team because he’s out of shape.”

“Charlie was not in good form when we saw him. He was overweight, and unfortunately, we could not slow down the entire team and it was a decision taken collectively. Last year, Charlie behaved really well with us and his only problem was his weight.”

Villanueva then responded by tweeting this photo on Twitter:

The weight of 243.5 is reportedly 11.5 pounds less than his playing weight from his 2004 National Championship season with the Connecticut Huskies.

Vincent Goodwill from the Detroit News reported the following on the decision from the team:

“It’s believed the team wasn’t pleased with his conditioning last summer, which led to the decision, after being a big part of the national team in recent years. An ankle injury slowed his progress and any hopes of getting much playing time for the Pistons this season.”

This is just an odd story to say the least, as I don’t recall ever hearing such a thing in all the years I’ve followed basketball. The Dominican national team must be better than I think if they can afford to a decent NBA player like Villanueva.

Follow Andrew Fisher on Twitter @the_realfish

 

 

 

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