Charles Barkley - Basketball Documentary

since we're hello I'm Chris Fowler for sportscentury on his 22nd birthday Charles Barkley dunked with such force and fury that he moved everything the stanchion the backboard the basket there was a 23 minute delay while workers restored and realigned what Sir Charles wrought with his earthquake and it seemed to sum him up everything he did or said tended to the extravagant and outrageous he dared you to ignore him that was rarely possible I can't think of too many more things more fun and covering the dream team in particular Charles Barkley in Barcelona he was the king of Las Ramblas that was the big party Street Barcelona job was the life of Barcelona only child's could have my thousand people following him all over the place he would go out and talk to people who were pretty unfortunate and I remember one homeless woman who never asked him for anything he just one day stuck a wad of bills in a bag best of times was Charles rolling down the rhombus the worst of times is when he would elbow an angle I don't know anything about Angola but ankle is in trouble new guys from Angola they were out of control they were throwing elbows as well so Charles being a competitor he's gonna throw an elbow back I asked him whether that was in keeping with the Olympic ideal and he said I'd it's the ideal of the playground this is the way you play I said to Mike listen Michael why'd you have a talk with Charles you know get him calmed down he said we've tried it your turn it was kind of hilarious political satire I mean what could be funnier than him you're elbowing this guy and then when called for it who knows you could have had a spear or something if Charles Barkley's colorful behavior kept opponents and State Department's on edge he helped motivate the greatest collection of basketball talent ever assembled as the US Olympic team coasted to gold I thought of all of the players he left the rock room with the most fire he was really really determined not to be embarrassed and not to lose that gold medal he was definitely our MVP doing that Olympic run and still today you sit there and watch him and say how did a man his size be able to do the things that he did I'll pour down your throat like broccoli every time no doubt clear the lane a solution play plus we got things bring your eye to the board Oh Lord the glass belongs to the top of the class got 56 points I mean people talk about who they'll never be another I think it'd be a long time before there's a six four guy who can do a Charles Barkley inch 4 inch the greatest rebounder ever in the NBA smallest man ever to win the rebounding championship his ability to dominate games physically at that height is something that I don't think anybody has really done before or since desire did it with desire and a big old foot he was that tell me you know you shoot the basketball and I'm gonna get every rebound and I tell you he would get every rebound his pure desire his love for the game you know he became an overachiever boards were only part of Barclays game one of only four players with 20,000 points 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists he perform not only to win but to excited I think that part of Charles Barkley's contribution is that he understood what he was doing it was entertaining that you came and you wanted a show I saw him kiss a guy when he made a game when he shot him so I'm shooting free throws with his eyes closed so I've knock out mascots by the dozens the biggest thing that Charles wanted was attention and he got it as a basketball player but that wasn't good enough the Charles Barkley was a fat kid who grew into a great basketball player and I think he's very grateful for any attention that he gets Charles like to be surrounded by people and like to have them reacting to what he was saying and do it it was such a mix of good and bad and logic and illogic it was a walking mass of contradictions his thing is that you could never understand who he is so trying to rationalize the things that he does you'll never be able to do that my idol a lot of times as Charles Barkley I wish I could say what he says well first I'd like to tell all y'all out there the best to kiss my big black ass Vieira knows that Charlie Parker gets in trouble because he tells the truth he's a bad official he's been bad the whole time I've been to leave I hate he came back I have heard him say things that I would kill anybody else if they sick I would kill him in writing I'd kill him on TV but because it was Charles you kind of just like you'll laugh and you don't want to laugh but it's funny that was a really really boring game I paused off with playing like crap but I couldn't get motivated hiring a lot the guy used to read the newspaper on his way to every game just so he could have analogies to use off the front page the sexual Erasmus doesn't really get to the core was absurd Oh Paula Jones be lucky somebody want to touch her ugly ass Charles just came on spoke to was on top of his mind and gave you all my set Muhammad Ali field Dan Majerle oh my dad Ben I'm just like every other woman in Phoenix can I have you that same southern smoothness that kind of makes it good for the air it's kind of like the difference between all the enticing all I could say the same thing Mike Tyson said I'll eat your chili and heat every really laughs you know Tyson says and it's like they want to put him in the same zone you know some people can't tell a joke Barkley can tell a joke what is being news y'all still trying to rip people off a little station aren't you I don't think I've ever said anything to nobody else I said but if you're a regular person you're giving your opinion if you're famous you are opinionated or you're controversial he inspired more discussion over the importance or the lack of importance of role models in athletics than any single individual I could remember not a role model Charles had said it all I did was you know tighten up the language a little more take a couple four-letter words out parents should be role models what he was saying was take responsibility for your own children you know I'm not your daddy just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids Barclays say what everybody ought to be saying don't wait for a professional athlete to mentor your child because he or she is a celebrity he got this before anybody else you're not something cuz you wish you weren't he was very much a role model well he care to admit it or not there were so many single-parent families looking for help in raising their kids and if he was gonna duck that responsibility and it'd make me angry in retrospect if the league had had control over to league wouldn't you know would never have let anything like that I think that the reaction to I am NOT a role model suddenly cast him as the heel the villain in the world wrestling basketball sweepstakes I feel sure over the years that he didn't get the commercial spot because of his personality but it works both ways I'm sure he's gotten some because of his being outspoken anything less would be uncivilized there's a lot of athletes at hire people to go out work for them to make you think they're a nice guy Charles is really a nice guy but he'd rather he think that he's a jerk that was part of his charm but that was also part of his curse before the 1995 all-star game in Phoenix Barclays playful impulse to shock burned the media wires I've been working on a sport magazine story on on Charles for about two three weeks this big German guy sixes microphone in and he says we're doing the story on NVA droopy the group of dink is a sick subject and you guys get a life a chart just looks down at me and he goes that's why I hate white guys and when the thing was over I said to him you don't hate white guys and he goes now I'm just effin with sons response the last comment about white people was to say ESPN is a news organization trying to make news out of a non-story Charles Barkley through his spokesman called it a non-story the NBA had no come it was just a momentary lapse of stupidity for a moment Charles being Charles trying to be funny and it wasn't funny he got a lot of hate mail it was really bad it was really brutal I think this certain segment of the population could not accept him what they didn't realize was this pretty good heart that Charles had he would frequently call our PR guy and say I'd like to go to Children's Hospital but if I see a camera crew or anybody from the newspapers I'm not going in the Celtics were playing the Sixers and Barkley dove out of bounds for this loose ball and and missed me by inches and I was very pregnant at the time and then afterwards as I was walking out he pulled me aside and he said uh can I be serious for a minute you really shouldn't sit there I'd hate for anything to happen to you or your baby Charles Barkley did some things which even those of us who really liked him couldn't possibly justify or rationalize but he gets a relative pass on a lot of that because generally he's so pleasant and outgoing spitting at people from people through play gasps windows I used to smile like most other people I would say why would Charles do that to himself Charles Wade Barkley was born in Leeds Alabama to Frank and charsi in February of 1963 I really don't like to talk much about Charles father we separated tub when Charles was not even a year old I know one time he hit her and I told him that I take his wives and babe home with me and I did I really struggle with not having a father to two women and three boys it was always a constant struggle Charles's grandmother I've always referred to as chairman lower she's one held everything together my mother was a strict disciplinarian Saku apart and any man could ever look Charles was about 14 or 15 and he said to me granny your mama never have to work no more cuz I'm gonna play the fish in the basketball I heard him say he's my favorite dr. J and everybody laughed out of him call him names there's not really much use for a 510 fat one god I started doing these drills to get my legs stronger jumping over his fence back and forth back and forth back at night when all other kids might be out on a date a child would be on the basketball and the people in the projects would tease me every night by the time we start to go to sleep we hear that buh-buh-buh-buh-buh out there on the basketball court I wasn't the most highly recruited player on my team so I realized the only way I was going to get the ball was get rebounds so going to my senior year I want to get 20 rebound of the night that was my goal averaging 18 rebounds and 19 points as a 6 foot 4 inch high school senior Berkeley was recruited nationwide he chose nearby Auburn or he grew out instead of up we waited in October 15th at 232 pounds by the end of his freshman year to 78 you couldn't get it off of you could break the plate you could monitor his eating habits I am sent coaches with to class and to the dialogue they go and they play a ball game they give them a postgame sandwich a snack Charles somehow smuggles three giant pizzas into his room but when I first saw child I looked at it this big guy big guy can't play and he dumped him and I looked this guy like - this big guy put all his weight man he's kind of like the bumblebee I would say the bumblebee aeronautical II ain't supposed to fly he got this little round with little bitty wings this guy ain't supposed to jump averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds in his first two seasons at Auburn the outsized Barclays drew more jeers than cheers I'm solve our that often Tigers here are three of my nickname the bread truck the lovable food were while only trying to find a good time left my favorite is around boundary bound with this place to plated hollow fat war fat boy oh it was a big kid son of Tennessee people had gotten Domino's Pizza till to deliver two pizzas of Charles on the court before the game but the scorn of Road crowds paled in comparison to the problems between Berkeley and head coach Sonny Smith Sonny pushed Charles in places it that he had never been and didn't want to be pushed in Sunday's ex home Charles could have a play and probably should be a great play he told signing while coach you know when a bright lights come on I played I saw it accounts he wanted to practice but not practice hard instead of rotating across and taking a charge Charles would rotate across just knock the guy up in the stands so I ran at him I swung at him and I get him in a chest right here he just backed off said coach don't hit me anymore let him smile and he's really a good kid he's just got a work little bit more his work habits I'm a little desire and practice so let me tell you something son you got a world of ability but I watched you in practice today and you're just going through motions listen to your coach your coach loves you your people your love you listen to them to trying to help you man I think once sunny realized that he had somebody who was a little bit different I think they came closer together and I think it made Auburn a better team as a junior the rotund forward helped lead a burn to its first NCAA Tournament appearance scoring 15 points and grabbing nine rebounds a game after the Tigers lost in the first round Berkeley was invited to try out for Bobby Knights 1984 Olympic team he was the best player on the floor you know better than Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing and everybody who was on that team I remember coach died asked him to come back to mini camper than five pounds of his best playing Lee and Charles came back and heady and touched a basketball come time for the first cut but when I got up there they started talking the first name he called out was Charles Barkley we were like man if he's cut and well I'm cut if Knight didn't appreciate the cut of Barclays jib the NBA certainly did in the 1984 draft Philadelphia selected him number five behind Hakeem Olajuwon Sam Bowie Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins the Philadelphia 76ers select Charles Barkley of Auburn University I said I want to play the 10 years and get 10 rebounds a night and make a million dollars and those with my three goals I want to just take care of my family coming out of out of hospital and I achieved all those goals tipping the 76ers training scales at 272 pounds Charles Barkley was not a perfect fit for a team that had won the 1983 NBA title initially I wasn't that excited he talking about someone under 65 playing a power forward position in the NBA there wasn't anyone like that here comes this brash rookie onto a team that already has Moses Malone that has the elegant Julius Erving that has all these established stars and veterans one would look at the other and say he'd leave this kid I got like to have fun a guy who had enormous skills and some of the parts at a game or were a little too easy for him but under the guidance of Senator Moses Malone Barkley began to make his mark not only on the league but on some of its players Charles's idea of a fast-break was to get the ball himself get up such a head of steam find a way to finish that off with a dunk and I think the idea of a big man having this kind of 94 foot game without a guard without an outlet pass is pretty unprecedented yet ability to grab the rebound handle a ball and break the press by herself and put out and get a layup and then there's his string of bodies leg at his wake that I made in my mind a guard might draw one charge on me but he's only going throw one if a guard had the guts to stand in front of me one time I was going to try to kill him so he would only do it once in his second season Barkley averaged 20 points and 13 rebounds but Philadelphia was eliminated in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference playoffs then on draft day Barkley lost his mentor Malone was moved to the bullets in two deals the 76ers obtained Jeff rueland cliff Robinson and Roy Henson the darkest day in the history of the franchise Jeff Roulin lasted five games before his knee gave way those trades were actually made for Charles it was our intent at that time to try to build a team around Charles they completely freed Charles up Charles became absolutely a huge major star because he had freedom this has become kind of Charles Barkley's team this has become if not the greatest show on earth at least the noisiest show on earth Barkley for three Berkeley remained irrepressible over the next four seasons in 1990 he averaged 25 points and 12 boards and finished second to Magic Johnson and the MVP voting on the next to last game of the season he took the Sixers to their first division title in seven seasons in a brawl filled matchup with the defending NBA champion Pistons Charles was like I'm so sick of Bill Laimbeer so he wrote a note dear lamb you love Charles and Rick we knew throughout the whole course the game that we were going to get into some kind of an altercation between Mahorn and myself and Berkeley Charles was so mad he'd gotten ejected from the game they did ripped the urinal off the wall I'm just look at this hole in the wall this water shooting out looked like a fire hose behind it of the 150 five thousand dollars in fines levied by the NBA 20,000 was billed to Berkeley but fallout from the altercation proved to be the beginning of the end of Barclays tumultuous stay in Philadelphia in March of 1991 against the New Jersey Nets Charles Barkley was the target of another's brashness there's this one guy behind the baseline who is getting with Charles through the whole game and it got progressively worse Barkley it just apparently it had enough kind of watched him gather his spit together and just let it fly in the direction of a heckler standing right really behind my daughter the next thing I remember is Charles just spitting and I got wet I was like oh my god what just happened he said man is the worst thing I've ever done I went too far this time and I never heard him say that any other time before or after two days later I got a phone call from Charles Barkley he said that he was basically sorry and he would like to speak to my daughter even if I to spit on that guy he didn't deserve it no matter how big nerd he was I had to be bigger than that Lauren taught me a great deal and I think the best thing ever happened was the way she treated me Barkley was fined $10,000 and suspended for one game chastened but unbowed he redirected his anger at teammates and management when he wanted to tell you something he would tell you and either you were mentally tough enough to take it or you were just wilt under you know his pressure a few missed five or six jump shots in a row he would tell you that your jump shot had gone on vacation and he might then label you with the name vacation Harold Katz is the one that everybody blames it was the owner at that time brought in players it just couldn't play and couldn't win Charles favorite joke is you know I asked for Shaq and they brought in Charles Shackleford after losing to the Bulls in the 1990 and 91 playoffs Barclays eighth season in Philadelphia was his roughest Rick Mahorn was gone and the media was closing in he was doing anything he could to get himself traded and he was also extremely frustrated but it started with in training camp saying the Sixers would keep Dave hoppin on the roster because they wouldn't have 12 black guys I said some people might be offended by an all-black team and when I woke up the next day's like Barker said I only keep my guy cause he's white there's always been some form of racism where people never discussed it as 1991 if nobody ever discussed it he's never gonna get sobs I thought they were reasons to me in Philadelphia the press wasn't I would listen to other athletes in Philadelphia they would say we are really not good enough we need to get better but when I was said Hill on the Berkeley bass his teammates he had finally decided that he was going to stop worrying what people thought of his comments his responses to questions were stop thinking about it and say what you feel say what you believe and if you have to defend it then he filmed a commercial day of a game questioning gets around to jobs maybe filming a commercial that they have a game is not a good idea Charles announces enough booming voice I'm a 90s which means I can do whatever I want to whenever I want people say Todd's monthly is a racist how can it be a racist it married to a white woman marrying marine Blum Hart in 1989 and fathering daughter crystianna that same year the couple was not appreciated in every precinct of the city of brotherly love the society here for whatever reason some small segment of that society wasn't ready for an interracial marriage that involved one of their heroes some people said some things that were cool and I know that bothered and they never said when he was around he didn't outwardly show signs of being affected dramatically by that did it bother him inside I would bet you that it did in his autobiography outrageous Barkley left little unsaid but when it exploded in bookstores in late 1991 the author tried to look the other way phones lit up a lot of course was Charles Barker and Barkley said bill I was misquoted than that book you claim to have been misquoted it in your autobiography deep at the time I thought this could be litigation history a man sues himself reliable that December Berkeley made headlines again after getting involved in a skirmish outside of Milwaukee bar although acquitted six months later by a jury the damage was done the 76ers sent him packing they said not guilty I ran out the courtroom I got a phone call from my agent he's been treated that's where my gone he's gone to Phoenix and I was recent adapt for to catch a plane and I remember as I don't care how much it cost free drinks but everybody on the plane I think he realized that he wasn't going to get a championship ring had he stayed in Philadelphia and I think you desperately wanted an opportunity to play for a championship so I think the team really did him a favor and accommodating him and making a trade with Phoenix I felt like the six just want to put me out there exit playoff and lose and I couldn't take that because I knew that were bigger things for me Charles Barkley was the biggest figure of any kind sports or otherwise ever to hit Arizona who is really Charles Barkley comes to Hooterville I took him upstairs in the balcony of America Western and I pointed to the ceiling I says that's what you can do for the Phoenix eyes you can bring him a championship coming off a gold medal with the dream team in Barcelona and burdened with the expectations of nothing less than a championship ring Charles Barkley played at the top of his game during his first season with Phoenix it was a great timing for Phoenix that Charles had played in the Olympics before Charles was a fantastic shape when he showed up in training camp that year and it just carried over throughout the entire season what Charles did was give us a confidence that we didn't have before and more times than not he carried us through averaging 26 points and 12 boards Berkeley won his only MVP by carrying the Suns into the 1993 NBA Finals waiting for him for the champion Chicago Bulls and his close friend I can't express the depth of man Michaels relationship as far as him being my brother he's always been there for me always behind closed doors sometimes I dream that he is me I would be - Michael was always good at flashing his rings and letting Charles know that he didn't have any and he wasn't gonna get any maybe only a friend could do that I think it's important for Berkeley to be around Jordan because I feels it elevates and cultivates him in some way Jordan watched him on TV one day and called left and said you got to start dressing right your black businessman in America here put on a suit Michael doesn't need to cultivate friendships and I think it was part of this irrepressible Berkeley nature Charles was able to say things that Michael might have felt like saying but they were coming out of the mouth of Charles I remember Jordan saying I wish I could say some of the things that Charles Barkley says as America gonna love yous with it love me oh I'm their worst nightmare a brother who won't be quiet the Bulls and Jordan provided Berkeley and the sons with a nightmare of their own winning the first two games in Phoenix but Sir Charles answered in Game three in Chicago this was the moment when wait a minute I can be on a par with with Michael Jordan I can be the best basketball player in the world I'm gonna play this one to the hill Bartlett would not let his team lose every overtime every time out he was like come on my name's Pat has in the back he's willing them to victory Barclays 24 point 19 rebound performance in game 3 brought the sun's back into the series after the Bulls responded by winning the fourth game Barkley scored another 24 points as the sun's took Game five the Bulls have to schlep back to Phoenix they're in a foul mood and the Suns have the lead late the Bulls had made up their mind that they were not gonna let me score and we got a turnover a missed jumper another turnover with Phoenix leading 98 96 with 14 seconds remaining Barkley made a questionable decision Charles went for the steal and hip and started to drive I can see Horace Grant open on the baseline and before I could even turn around he just hot potato right back out the packs and then I just went please Fitz please miss had Charles played more conservatively maybe they were the one although Charles outwardly might not have expressed to everyone his emotions about losing that series inwardly there was no one that hated more to lose the Michael Jordan the Chicago Bulls and Charles Barkley you want to say it was a great year but you you feel so bad right now I know he must have thought you know if I didn't beat that guy this season I don't think I'm ever going to after losing to the Bulls in the 1993 finals Charles Barkley at 30 looked towards an uncertain future Charles was so motivated that that was going to be the year his body was breaking down a little bit he didn't quite take care of himself in the offseason you know the way he should because he was so good so gifted Charles really didn't believe they had to keep his body and shape and work at it Charles was playing golf eating pie and ice cream and having a good old time in the offseason but when the fourth quarter came Charles wanted to win as bad as anybody else with elbow back and knee injuries Barkley considered retirement in each of his last three seasons with the Suns I'll tell you the same thing I told a team feather the game more than likely I played my last game there was a couple times that he announced his retirement but we all just kind of wait to see and hope that he come back for the next year I convinced him that he was given a gift and we needed him very badly Barkley stayed but after blowing - OH playoff leads to the Rockets in 1994 and 95 the Sonny atmosphere in Phoenix darkened much of the drama fell on Barkley and Kevin Johnson Charles and I got along as players we had different interests I don't know if we both tried as hard to make the relationship work you know there's a story of Charles saying KJ come to the strip club with me and I'll go to church with you on Sunday and you know KJ lived fulfilled his end of the bargain and Charles said no I'm not going to church in August of 1996 16 days after Berkeley won his second Olympic gold medal he was traded to Houston if he was still effective on the court his relationship with the public was increasingly tenuous when a woman in Scottsdale tore up his autograph he poured beer over her head three other incidents and was punches were allegedly thrown resulted in no punishment for Barkley you can talk to Charles and tell him all right Charles don't put yourself in a position to where you could get in trouble you gotta be kiddin Charles Barkley's Charles Barkley that's part of his persona I opened my Marlee Sports Grille in 93 and uh I remember he used to come in after games and we'd have to put monster on stable for there just be crowds of people you know eight ten deep just standing there looking at it he was a very accessible guy allowing that access you also get some people whose objective is not friendly I've seen other athletes in these type of situations they just say you know what we better get the hell out of here this is a no-win situation Charles wasn't able to see that he couldn't walk away because it's not in Charles's nature to walk away he interpreted that as a sign of weakness or vulnerability that's what made him appeal to the working people he wasn't a saint he was just sauce and if you rubbed in the wrong way he had the right to get mad in October of 1997 in Orlando a party came to a crashing end the little guy said something to charles charles followed him outside all he said was hey you gonna give me some respect and he pushed a little guy against the wall and just happened to have some mirror there when charles pushed it the little glass fell on the floor and of course the little guy act like he was dead at that point this is a victim 20 year old Jorge Lugo moments after being released from the hospital he's banged up after he was tossed through a plate-glass window a Phineas Fogg eyewitnesses say was Houston Rockets player Charles Barkley who did it let there be no conflict and America you bother me I'm gonna whoop your ass I do him through the window it asked me that I have any regrets I see I'll regret that we were on the first floor that's about it always we were on like the third floor so he could have failed Barkley settled with Lugo for a reported $75,000 and paid a $320 fine in Orlando court although he received no suspension from the NBA the league threatened to cut short Barclays career unless he secured a bodyguard he doesn't have a posse he doesn't have a bunch of people he he would come to things by himself and finally the league said you can't do this anymore they made it very simple I'm either gonna retire or give security and solo not meet 50 people a day so I probably met you know a million people and a million have been greedy five or six have been really bad I wouldn't trade that for the world I don't mind over the six or seven negative things because I meet the most incredible people I think Charles it it's one of his greatest traits in this one of his words that he just wants to be a normal person and unfortunate for him you can't be an old person back on the court are cleese drive that elusive championship ring was fading despite Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler at his side then in January of 1999 Scottie Pippen replaced the retiring Drexler you know this thing called The Breakfast Club him dream and Scottie would work out they would lift every morning and get their bodies right I see the jaws I know Scottie have a very good relationship the way they talk I joke around but when Pippen demanded to be traded after the season Barclays fumed having deferred part of his salary so the Rockets could obtain Pippen he demanded an apology I gave up more than anybody to get Scottie and for him to want to leave that the one you just disappointed me greatly miss apena he's a very unselfish guy he doesn't show me the desire to want to win I probably should have listened to Michael he said it Charles never will manage ampionship because he doesn't show when you dedicate anything he'll be apology for coming to play with his sorry bit but Michael called me from Montecarlo they man you know I would never said anything bad about you whatever Scott has said as BSB has let that go and don't worry about it three days after bashing Barkley hippin became a Portland trailblazer but in the wake of Pippins exit there remained the question why hadn't Barkley won a title I think he wants to be seen in the echelon of the George and the birds and the Magic Johnson's but in my mind he was one step short of that single-minded Drive winning - Michael was like Vince Lombardi it was everything and maybe it wasn't everything to drop that didn't mean he didn't want to win but he might not prepare himself there's no question that his his lifestyle I think had some detriment on his level of play could he have kept himself in better shade and and got into bed before closing time once in a while yeah he could have but that's why he attacked life there's so many things going into winning the championship Charles Park was not the reason why teams did not win championships he's always said you know that's not going to define me if I never want to championship but I think it really bothered him and I think I think it bothered him really throughout his career I don't know if it will ever haunt him I think he's such a good-natured human being that he's going to let it go but I think deep deep deep down in his heart that if he ever won a championship he would have felt totally complete as a player Charles Barkley announced in the fall of 1999 that the upcoming NBA season would be his last but if he had any reservations that would be shattered early in the year in Philadelphia maybe eight minutes into the game Tyrone Hill drove the baseline and Charles was playing defense and he went up to block the shot but he landed it was a sharp crack of sound he's grabbing that knee immediately you didn't hear a shriek of pain but you saw the end of a career who knew without question that it was over he cried when he went back to the locker room that's it well how did you hold back with all that pain he said my daughter was watching in Phoenix and I didn't want her to see me and pain say you know to see him cry like a little baby I mean he were just quiet and I told him God to make a mistake it happened for a reason it was supposed to happen like this it was supposed to end in Philadelphia I really believe that in my heart but it wasn't quite the end for Barkley with 37 recovered from his torn left quadricep enough to enter the Rockets final game of the season you can tell that he wanted to get back on the basketball court you can said he wanted to you know get one more rebound you can tell you what don't score one more bucket Reggie Norris going to the basket Markit retires for the NBA Barkley moved on to television and the weight of his words and his body became topics for discussion he's like well you can weigh me on the air I don't care can't say that on television now this is not stand still Chuck your weight tonight 337 don't realize how fat I got I was bad now I'm chubby I'm trying to get the big ball getting back to my plan we meanwhile Barkley keeps alive a rumor that evil one day pursue another job Governor of Alabama Charles Barkley says I still want to be government but not until I'm 45 he wants to help kids and he believes if he can get on TV if he could offer the message that here I am a kid from a single-parent household mom was on welfare in Leeds Alabama and look what I did I've been on both ends of the spectrum I been the rich I've been poor and I think we need to get more profits than that were not concerned about helping any group just happen everybody I love when he told his grandmother that he had become a Republican and she said Charles you know I'm happy to be a Republican of the Republicans are for the rich people he said you know grandma I'm rich God has obviously blessed me beyond my wildest expectations and I don't think he said I will give you all this power and money and fame and everything and when you retire once you sit at home and just have a big house some cars and have a lot of money I never grew up expecting to be Charles Parker I've never had a job I think knock on wood I got more money than I've ever been in my entire life I met presidents I met kings and it's only because of basketball that's it it's only because of basketball anyone can score if they shoot often enough Charles Barkley liked to say but rebounding is the true measure of a man and his work ethic in the spring of 2001 Sir Charles talked of rebounding himself finding nothing that fulfilled him like basketball he talked about returning to the NBA and renewing his quest for a ring as is usual with him no one knew what to expect for Sports century I'm Chris Fowler

Channel: AllBasketballUniverse

Views: 937,240

Keywords: Charles Barkley, NBA, basketball, sports, sport, player, Barkley, power forward, greatest, all time, scorer, leading, time, ever, documentary, educational, education, history, athlete, olympics, dream team, 76ers, suns, rockets, team, teams, Jordan, Iverson, Rodman, Magic Johnson, Lakers, Bryant, James, Wade, treatment, hosting, recovery, degree, credit, claim, insurance, donate, rehab, loans, loan, software

Id: L0ciIFZk5cw

Length: 43min 12sec (2592 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 13 2013