What can't be said about this loudmouth baller? One of the few people called Sir without actually being knighted by the Queen of England, Charles Barkley was a dominate force during his tenure in the National Basketball Association. Barkley was Shaq before Shaq was Shaq. Large, powerful and a mouth that wouldn't quit.
Born on February 20, 1963 in Leeds Alabama, Charles once had dreams of being Governor of Alabama. That would be 4 years ago, not when he was a four year old. Charles played college ball for Auburn. It was here that he received his nickname, "The Round Mound of Rebound." He was dubbed in such a manner for his ability to box out under the boards and his odd frame for a basketball player. At his thinnest, Charles was a svelte 250 lbs on his 6 foot, 6 inch frame. Note well children, you don't need to be thin to be good at what you do.
Charles left college a year early to enter the Association. He was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers as the 5th overall pick in 1984. Also drafted that year was Hakeem Olajuwon as the #1 pick, and some no-name picked #3 called Michael Jordan, I doubt you've heard of him.
Barkley would quickly assert himself on the basketball court. During his rookie season, Charles was 1.5 rebounds per game away from averaging a double double on the season. During his 8 years as a 76er, Charles drove the team to the play-offs 6 times. However, the farthest the team went in the play-offs was the Eastern Conference Finals in 1985, where they were defeated by the Boston Celtics. In 1987 Charles won his only rebounding title, with 994 boards.
During the early 90's, Charles would begin to get dissappointed with the direction that the 76ers were taking. He soon made his opinions vocal, and after the 91-92 season, Charles was traded. He was sent to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang. In the new uniform, Barkley was energized and rejuvinated. Almost all across the board, his statistics improved. At the end of the season, Sir Charles became the 3rd player in NBA history to win the MVP award the season after being traded to a new team. Phoenix would stampede their way to the NBA finals that season, going 62-20 during the season, and tearing through the play-offs. The only thing in their way, was the Jordan led Chicago Bulls. The teams battled for six games before the Bulls took the upper hand, and ultimately, the Championship. This was Phoenix's second appearance in the finals, and their first since 1976.
Barkley stayed in Phoenix only four years before being traded again, this time to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Chucky Brown and Mark Bryant. Joining Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, one would think that the Rockets were unstoppable. However, they were stopped twice by the Utah Jazz in the opening round of the playoffs in 96-97 and 97-98. In 98-99, the Lakers, en route to their first of three championships, squashed the Rockets' play-off hopes.
1998-1999 would mark the last playoff appearance for the Round Mound of Rebound. Charles spent most of the 99-00 season in a peculiar position, warming left bench, due to a torn left quadriceps tendon occurring early in the season during a game against his old team, the 76ers. Both his mother and grandmother were in attendence that game as it was a farewell to Charles, as he was thinking of retiring after that season. The injury would assure that.
Barkley would have nothing to complain about during his NBA career, except for his lack of a championship ring. He was voted to 11 All-Star games and was named MVP of the 1991 contest. Charles played on the origional Dream Team that housed the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona, Spain. He also won a gold medal with the 1996 team that played down in Hotlanta. Charles is one of four players to hve 20,000+ points, over 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. The other three players are Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. Not bad company.
Charles Barkley is known for his on-court antics as well as his off the court comments. Since retiring, Charles signed a contract with TNT and announces games along with the rest of their NBA announcing squad. Charles is also an avid golfer, and runs his own yearly charity tournament.
Sir Charles on...
America
"You know it's going to
hell when the
best rapper out there is white and
the best golfer is black."
People
I don't care what people think.
People are stupid.
If he never played basketball
If I weren't earning $3 million a year to
dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming.
Rough Play
Somebody hits me, I'm going to hit him back. Even if it does look like he hasn't eaten in a while.
The Media
My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character.
His Shoes
These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it.
The Big Apple
I love New York City; I've got a gun.
His Retirement
"Just what America needs ... One more unemployed black man."
Statistics
Height: 6-6
Weight: 246 on retirement
Position: Forward/power forward
Numbers: #34, #4
YEAR TEAM G GS MIN FGM FGA 3PM 3PA FTM FTA OFR DER REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
84-85 PHI 82 60 2347 427 783 1 6 293 400 266 437 703 155 95 80 209 301 1148
85-86 PHI 80 80 2952 595 1041 17 75 396 578 354 672 1026 312 173 125 350 333 1603
86-87 PHI 68 62 2740 557 937 21 104 429 564 390 604 994 331 119 104 322 252 1564
87-88 PHI 80 80 3170 753 1283 44 157 714 951 385 566 951 254 100 103 304 278 2264
88-89 PHI 79 79 3088 700 1208 35 162 602 799 403 583 986 325 126 67 254 262 2037
89-90 PHI 79 79 3085 706 1177 20 92 557 744 361 548 909 307 148 50 243 250 1989
90-91 PHI 67 67 2498 665 1167 44 155 475 658 258 422 680 284 110 33 210 173 1849
91-92 PHI 75 75 2881 622 1126 32 137 454 653 271 559 830 308 136 44 235 196 1730
92-93 PHO 76 76 2859 716 1376 67 220 445 582 237 691 928 385 119 74 233 196 1944
93-94 PHO 65 65 2298 518 1046 48 178 318 452 198 529 727 296 101 37 206 160 1402
94-95 PHO 68 66 2382 554 1141 74 219 379 507 203 553 756 276 110 45 150 201 1561
95-96 PHO 71 71 2632 580 1160 49 175 440 566 243 578 821 262 114 56 218 208 1649
96-97 HOU 53 53 2009 335 692 58 205 288 415 212 504 716 248 69 25 151 153 1016
97-98 HOU 68 41 2243 361 744 18 84 296 397 241 553 794 217 71 28 147 187 1036
98-99 HOU 42 40 1526 240 502 4 25 192 267 167 349 516 192 43 13 100 89 676
99-00 HOU 20 18 620 106 222 6 26 71 110 71 138 209 63 14 4 44 48 289
G GS MIN FGM FGA 3PM 3PA FTM FTA OFR DER REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
Career 1073 1012 39330 8435 15605 538 2020 6349 8643 4260 8286 12546 4215 1648 888 3376 3287 23757
Playoff 123 108 4849 1009 1965 64 251 751 1048 510 1072 1582 482 193 108 353 408 2833
All-Star 9 7 209 45 91 3 12 20 32 22 38 60 16 12 4 20 18 113
Sources:
http://espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1208/221469.html
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/charles_barkley/?nav=page
http://www.mugshots.org/sports/charles-barkley.html
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/a126043.html
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/news/1999/12/24/barkley_special/