interbasket.net  InterBasket > profiles > Barkley
  InterBasket > Player Profiles > Charles Barkley, Usa   From NBA.com: There are four players in NBA history who have compiled at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. But when the conversation turns to the exploits of Barkley, many people think first of the always entertaining, sometimes outrageous running commentary on basketball and life he provided throughout his celebrated 16-year NBA career.

However, as a player he was the greatest anomaly in basketball history. Listed at 6-6, but probably actually closer to 6-4, he played power forward as well as anyone, often dominating players half a foot taller.

Barkley brought vitality, attitude and a host of skills to professional basketball. He was viewed as an oddity -- an undersized power forward with rebounding as his only discernible basketball skill -- when he entered the league with the nickname "Round Mound of Rebound."

Undeterred, Barkley quickly buried that backhanded compliment once he began playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. It was not rare to see the neophyte Barkley grab a rebound among a crowd, then rumble downcourt with the ball and finish with a monster slam. In a half-court offense, he could fill the basket from the paint or the perimeter. And on the defensive end, he would play the passing lane for a steal or block a center's shot.

On September 09, 2006 Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall-Of-Fame along with Joe Dumars and Dominique Wilkins.

More Charles Barkley Quotes:  I don't care what people think. People are stupid. - Charles Barkley

"I know I'm never as good or bad as one single performance. I've never believed in my critics or my worshippers, and I've always been able to leave the game at the arena.
"

"I love New York City; I've got a gun."

"I think that the team that wins game five will win the series. Unless we lose game five."

"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.
"

"Kids are great. That's one of the best things about our business, all the kids you get to meet. It's a shame they have to grow up to be regular people and come to the games and call you names."

Barkley on a scuffle between Juwan Howard and Wally Szczerbiak: "Both of them are nice guys, but neither one of them can crush a grape between them."

"You mean to tell me they're holding our plane and soildiers hostage, and we're giving this Chinese guy a three year contract"

After Wang ZhiZhi has a shot blocked: "He's got to bring something stronger than that. That's like bringing milk to a bar, it's not strong enough"

"My family got all over me because they said Bush is only for the rich people. Then I reminded them, 'Hey, I'm rich'."

"I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character."


"Somebody hits me, I'm going to hit him back. Even if it does look like he hasn't eaten in a while."

"The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not."

To a fan in the FleetCenter in Boston: "You guys are two players away from being good again -- Bill Russell and Larry Bird."

Before the Dream Team's game against Angola in the 1992 Olympics: "All I know about Angola is they  in trouble."

"Hey Stanley, you could be a great player if you learned just two words: I'm full." — Barkley yelling to 300-plus-pound Houston Rockets teammate Stanley Roberts

On what it means having Rick Mahorn as a teammate: "All it means is that people will say that I don’t have the biggest butt in the league anymore."

On why he endorses Nike, even though its shoes sell for more than $100: "Hey, they don't stop selling Mercedes Benzes just because some people can't afford them, do they?"

Barkley in response to Charles Oakley saying that 60 percent of NBA players smoke pot: "What percentage of reporters who cover the NBA smoke pot? My poll is just as scientific as his poll. I am going to say 60 percent of writers smoke pot. I just came up with a number. You don't have to have any facts...you can just throw things out there. I like that."

Charles Barkley Profile

Name:
Charles Wade Barkley
Postion: Power Forward
Nickname: The Round Mound of Rebound, Sir Charles
Born: 02/20/1963
Status: Retired as player; active as TNT Announcer;
Inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall-Of-Fame on September 09, 2006
Origin: Leeds, Alabama, Usa
Height: 6-6/1,98m
Weight: 255lbs./116,4
Schools: Auburn University
Drafted: 1984, First Round, by the Philadelphia 76ers
Languages: English
Website:
InterBasket
Teams (Jersey): Auburn Tigers, US National Team (
1992's Dream Team and 1996), Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns
IBN Facts: Sitting in the TNT studio and letting fly whatever comes to mind, one almost forgets that Charles Barkley was once a monster on the court. Standing barely 6-5 and the physique of an out-of-work football player, Barkley ran the court with surprising ease, grabbed rebounds from taller and more athletic players and dunked the ball when you least expected it.

Charles Barkley Quotes:
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. - Charles Barkley

You know it's going to hell when the best rapper out there is white and the best golfer is black.

"They run like deer, jump like deer and think like deer." - Charles Barkley on the Portland Trail Blazers.

On the All-Star Game: "Hell, there ain't but 15 black millionaires in the whole country & half of 'em are right here in this room."

On the news that the NBA would allow zone defenses: "This is a great day for bad NBA players"

"Dennis (Rodman) likes wearing a dress, I don't like wearing a dress. I tried it on a couple of times in the house, but I do it privately; I don't do it publicly."

"Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids."

On throwing an elbow at an Angolan: "Well, he might have pulled a spear on me."

On why he didn’t attend a presidential inauguration: "They’re not my type. I like to be around low-class people, like reporters."

On his retirement: "Just what America needs--another unemployed black man."

When asked about his grades at Auburn, he said, "As long as I was leading the SEC in rebounding, my grades would be fine."

His greeting to new Rocket Elmer Bennett: "Elmer? I ain't never met a brother named Elmer. I can't believe that. A brother named Elmer. I have been alive 33 years, and I ain't never met a brother named Elmer. I've heard of Elmer Fudd, but that's it. They named a fella Elmer."

"That's a lot of damn money. And a black man is making it. What a great country. Imagine if he could play." — Barkley on Kevin Garnett's $125 million deal

"As long as Bird is around I will only be the second-worst defensive player in basketball."

 

Charles Barkley Links  From our forum:  Retrospectives: Charles Barkley, Joe Dumars, Dominique Wilkins, Nba Forum So anyways I'm watching the TNT NBA Highlights...   Article: Charles Barkley Mugshot (The Smoking Gun.com) Charles Barkley Quotes (Clintcam.com)  He's Just Pretending to Be Outrageous (MSN Slate 2002)   All eyes will be on Barkley, Kenny Smith's backside (ESPN.com)   Charles Barkley's 'Black Man' talks about racism (USAToday 2005)  Barkley tees off on Larry Brown, Knicks (NY Daily News 2005), Barkley's Big Night About to Become Real (Philadelphia Inquirer), Sir Charles Sure Talks Like a Role-Model (Philadelphia Daily News), Barkley talks candidly about politics, religion, and gay marriage (Philadelphia Daily News),