Raymond Felton Is Tired of Being Called Fat

They say you should always reply "no" when a woman asks you if she's overweight.

Apparently, the same standard doesn't apply to New York Knicks point guard Raymond Felton.

He's been dealing with wisecracks and criticism about his weight for years, and he's finally speaking up about it. According to Newsday's Al Iannazzone, Felton said:

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I had one year when I was out of shape, now everybody wants to talk about my weight every year. It’s kind of getting old. It’s kind of getting on my nerves that that’s all you want to talk about.

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Felton also talked about how people have been using his weight as an excuse for his poor play. He wants that to stop too:

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Right now, nobody can’t criticize anything about my fitness. My weight is down even lower than it was early in the season. And I feel great. Early in the season I was hurt. I’m playing with an injury. I just feel like that is a cop-out thing that somebody just wants to talk about.

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Most of the talk about Felton's weight stems from his lone campaign with the Portland Trail Blazers. That season, he posted two then career-lows: 11.4 points and a player efficiency rating of 13.4.

According to Jared Zwerling (via Larry Brown Sports), former Blazers coach Nate McMillan said of Felton's time there:

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I think his weight had a direct impact on how well he played. When you’re not conditioned to play, then you’re going to struggle, you’re going to turn the ball over. If you don’t have your legs, your shot is not going to fall.

He had picked up some weight, as he told me, and we were trying to work on him moving that weight during the season.

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The following summer, Felton showed up in pictures and videos that had some wondering whether he was working a basketball camp or a fat camp:

In 2013-14, Felton has dipped below both those career-low marks he set as a Blazer. And in New York, poor play is always going to draw attention and criticism.

If he really wants people to shut up about his weight, Felton simply needs to be more productive, or at least efficient.

He can start by spending extra time in the gym shooting. His three-point percentage of 28.6 is his lowest since the 2008-09 season.

Now that he's healthy and hopefully out of the training room, Felton should have more time to spend working on his game, and his body, on the floor.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats are courtesy of Sports-Reference.com and NBA.com and are current as of Feb. 20, 2014.

Andy Bailey covers the NBA for Bleacher Report.

Follow @AndrewDBailey