Cody Zeller talks about living in Charlotte, being 7 feet tall and dressing up as a Minion
Imagine this: Cody Zeller — all 7 feet of him — walking into Hemby Children’s Hospital dressed as a Minion. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. You can see it right here.
A photo posted by Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) on Oct 26, 2015 at 11:29am PDT
Why was he in a Minion costume? Zeller talked about that and a whole lot more when he joined us on this week’s episode of the CharlotteFive Podcast.
Zeller, who played at Indiana University and was drafted by the then-Charlotte Bobcats in 2013, took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about the work he’s doing with Hemby’s Children’s Hospital, including visiting the kids regularly throughout the season — sometimes in costume. The visits started as a rookie “requirement,” but it’s grown to be a whole lot more for Zeller.
“I have no illusions about the real impact that I — or any athlete — can have through making a few hospital visits or a donation,” Zeller wrote in a piece for The Players’ Tribune in December. “It’s truly the least any of us can do.”
While we had Zeller, we also asked him about:
– His first impressions of Charlotte.
– The difference between being a Bobcat and a Hornet.
– Where he likes to hang out in Charlotte.
– What it’s like being 7 feet tall.
– Who would win in a game of one-on-one: Him or Michael Jordan?
– How many times he’s seen the movie “Hoosiers.”
– And we had some locker room talk: Who has the worst taste in music in the locker room, and who is the best-dressed Hornet?
Also on this week’s podcast, we talked about this story from Theoden Janes about a young Charlotte runner her lost her love for the sport because of online “haters,” and about the Major League Soccer stadium proposal, and whether the city and county should be spending public money to build a sports stadium.
And, as I mentioned on the podcast, producer Richard Brooke recently won an Emmy for an amazing piece he did about the UAB football program. (We had him bring the Emmy to the studio. It’s heavy.) Here’s the winning piece, which you should definitely watch:
The CharlotteFive Podcast — presented by The Charlotte Observer and powered by OrthoCarolina — is a weekly podcast that aims to get you Charlotte Smart, Fast with fun, interesting and useful news about the city. It’s hosted by Corey Inscoe and Sarah Crosland and produced by Richard Brooke.
You can find The CharlotteFive Podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Google Play and Stitcher. You can follow us on Twitter @Charlotte_Five, on Instagram @cltfive, and on Facebook, and you can shoot us an email to charlottefive@charlottefive.com.
Photos: AP Photo/Chuck Burton; Charlotte Observer
This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 11:00 PM with the headline "Cody Zeller talks about living in Charlotte, being 7 feet tall and dressing up as a Minion."