Jared Sullinger's body is finally telling him it's time to lose weight



Is his body telling him it's time to lose weight? Or is his agent? Sully has been a fan favorite of many Celtics fans, including myself, since being drafted by Boston in 2012. There are nights he's been the best player on the court for the C's, there are nights he has outshined big name superstars like Kevin Love. And then there are nights where he looks like he's gotten so heavy and out of shape he can barely lift his Jordans off the parquet floor.

His weight problem has been a lingering issue for a while now. He has tried to combat it multiple times, but hasn't had much success defeating the urge to eat with any consistency. The Celtics and general manager Danny Ainge took a known risk when drafting him, but they're not about to let Sullinger's weight problem continue to be the team's problem, and made that clear last season when Sullinger went down for an extended time with an injury for the second straight season.



Ainge told ESPN.com's Jackie MacMullan back in March of last year that they have great interest in re-signing Sullinger once his contract is up in 2016, but that he'd likely be subjected to a weight clause in his contract, much like Glen Davis had during his time in Boston.

From what Gary Washburn tells us in the tweet above, it sounds like Sullinger has finally realized if he doesn't get slimmer, his pockets will.

ESPN's Ryen Russilo recently talked to some NBA scouts on the upcoming NBA Draft, and one anonymous scout compared Jahlil Okafor, one of the top prospects of 2015, to Sullinger. But it wasn't in a complimentary form.

Now I've heard, if you were to ask the Duke people, and they were to be honest with you, there's not a great love for the game (for Okafor),Not like you'd think. Not a great passion. He'll be there, and do the right things. But it's like Jared Sullinger: I want to play, but I don't want to lose weight. I don't want to really get in shape. I want to do enough, but I'm not going to do extra. And that is concerning.

It's now or never for Sullinger. He either improves his conditioning and proves to the Celtics he can keep in shape and be a consistent force behind a winning team, or he becomes the next Oliver Miller.





Only time will tell whether the Sully we see pictured above (posted to his twitter account 4 days ago) will be in the same shape when he steps onto the floor for the Celtics in the 2015-16 season. Let's hope for his sake, and the Celtics', he doesn't suffer another setback and can keep the weight off for good this time.

Ainge and head coach Brad Stevens may want to check his locker for secret compartments just to be safe though.



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