Charles Barkley

Basketball Player

• Born: February 20, 1963
• Birthplace: Leeds, Alabama

Basketball player and sports analyst

Barkley, voted one of the fifty greatest players in NBA history, overcame his relative lack of height to become one of the most dominant rebounders of his era. Known as much for his outspoken nature as for his prowess on the court, Barkley became a popular television basketball analyst after his playing career was over.

Areas of achievement: Radio and television; Sports: basketball; Sports: Olympics

Early Life

Charles Wade Barkley was born in Leeds, Alabama, to Frank Barkley and Charcey Glenn. He is the oldest of three sons and was raised primarily by his mother and grandmother.

Barkley was not a standout basketball player in high school until his senior year, when he led his team to the state semifinals. Although the team lost, Barkley made a name for himself. He was recruited by Auburn University and began attending in the fall of 1981.

Barkley starred for three years at Auburn, where he played center despite being only six feet, six inches tall. Although he only played three seasons, he retained his rank among Auburn’s all-time best players for more than twenty years. Barkley’s best season was his junior year, in which he averaged 15.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. In his final game for Auburn, in the first round of the 1984 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament, Barkley scored twenty-three points and seventeen rebounds in a losing effort.

Life’s Work

Barkley decided that his strong junior year would be a good launching pad to a professional career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). With his strength and ability to rebound, his natural position was power forward, but even in that position, he was four to six inches shorter than the typical player. His nickname—the “Round Mound of Rebound”—reflects another nagging problem: Barkley had difficulty controlling his weight. Although he was listed at 265 pounds, during his professional career he sometimes weighed as much as 300 pounds.

What Barkley lacked in height, however, he more than compensated for with determination and heart. In 1984, the Philadelphia 76ers drafted him in the first round. He joined a team that had won the NBA championship two seasons before but whose stars were reaching the ends of their careers. Barkley managed a creditable 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in his rookie season. The team reached the Eastern Conference Finals but fell to the Boston Celtics. Barkley’s play that year earned him mention on the NBA’s All-Rookie Team.

The next season, Barkley’s averages jumped to 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds a game, and he was named to the All-NBA second team. Personal success did not translate into team success, however, and the 76ers were eliminated in the second round of the play-offs.

Barkley’s third season was the first of seven standout years in which he established himself as one of the game’s elite players. During those years, he averaged 23.0 to 28.3 points a game and snared 10.1 to 14.6 rebounds a game. He was named a first-team All-NBA player after five of those seasons and to the second team the other two years. The 76ers, however, were in transition. The team enjoyed its greatest success in the 1989-1990 season. After winning in the first round of the playoffs, though, the team was defeated by the rising Chicago Bulls, led by budding superstar Michael Jordan.

As the team struggled more and more, the outspoken Barkley did not hesitate to criticize teammates when he thought they were not working hard enough. He also was embroiled in controversy. In 1991, he was widely criticized for spitting on a young girl in a seat near the court (Barkley had been targeting a fan who had heckled him). He apologized to the girl and her family and later called the incident the event he regretted most in his career.

After the 1991-1992 season, Barkley was traded to the Phoenix Suns. Before joining the Suns, Barkley won a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games with the United States men’s basketball “Dream Team,” the greatest collection of basketball players ever assembled for an extended series of games. Playing alongside stars such as Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson, Barkley led the team in scoring.

The next season, Barkley’s first in Phoenix, brought him near to the NBA championship he wanted so badly. He was named the league’s most valuable player for the season and helped lead the Suns into the NBA Finals. The team ran into Jordan’s Bulls, however, and lost in six games.

Another controversy arose in 1993, when Barkley made a commercial for the Nike athletic shoe company in which he proclaimed, “I am not a role model.” Barkley wanted people to see that parents, not athletes, should be children’s role models. The commercial sparked heated debate.

Barkley played three more seasons in Phoenix, but the team never reached the finals again. Traded to the Houston Rockets in 1996, he hoped to finally secure a championship. By this time, though, his skills were fading with age.

Before the 1999-2000 season began, Barkley announced that it would be his last. The end came sooner than expected when, in a December game in Philadelphia, Barkley ruptured a tendon in his left leg. He recovered sufficiently to appear in the final game of the season and then retired.

Since 2000, Barkley has provided in-studio analysis for cable channel TNT’s NBA coverage on Inside the NBA, earning four Sports Emmy Awards for Outstanding Studio Analyst. He was also in the news for some less desirable reasons. These included stories about severe gambling losses in 2007 and an arrest for driving under the influence in late 2008. The latter incident led to a two-month hiatus from his TNT work. In 2015 he and his fellow Inside the NBA hosts Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kenny Smith signed a contract extension with TNT to work for the duration of the network's contract with the NBA, which ends after the 2024–25 NBA season. In 2021 Barkley mentioned in several interviews that he was thinking of retiring from the network when he turns sixty, in 2023. In addition to Inside the NBA, Barkley hosted TNT's six-part series The Race Card in 2017.

Barkley, a Republican who switched his affiliation to Independent, had expressed a desire to run for governor of his native Alabama in the 2014 election, but decided not to run.

Significance

Barkley was one of the premier players in NBA history. He is one of a select few players who amassed twenty thousand points, ten thousand rebounds, and four thousand assists in their careers. In the 1990s, he was named one of the NBA’s fifty greatest players. In 2006, he was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He was most memorable as a player who achieved great things despite not having a body suited to his position. He relied on hard work and intelligence to make himself a great player.

Barkley’s outspokenness also is an inextricable part of his legacy. Although often seen simply as an athlete who liked to talk, Barkley was often incisive in his understanding of society, sports, and race.

Bibliography

Axson, Scooby. “Charles Barkley Speaks about His ‘Inside the NBA’ Future, Blasts Cancel Culture: ‘Can’t Have Fun Nowadays.’” USA Today, 17 June 2021, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2021/06/17/charles-barkley-shares-future-tnt-plans-blasts-cancel-culture/7727530002/. Accessed 20 July 2021.

Barkley, Charles, and Michael Wilbon. I May Be Wrong, but I Doubt It. New York: Random, 2002. Print.

Barkley, Charles, and Michael Wilbon. Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? New York: Penguin, 2005. Print.

Deford, Frank. The Best of Frank Deford: I’m Just Getting Started. Chicago: Triumph, 2001. Print.

Smith, Sam. The Jordan Rules. New York: Simon, 1992. Print.