Growing up, I was a big NBA basketball fan. While my brother was a huge Michael Jordan fan (like everyone else in the world), I was idolizing Charles Barkley. He did not want to be a role model and proclaimed that he wasn't, but to me he was. I know my mother agreed with him in thinking that he shouldn't be. She seemed disgusted at his outspoken and scandalous behavior.
Many comparisons have been made and Jordan is known as the greatest ever, I personally don't believe that anyone deserves that moniker because so many things go into it and it is objective (I am not looking to get into this argument here). Charles Barkley had no championships, he also did not have the coaching and as strong of a roster around him in his prime. He was drafted to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984, a year after they won a championship (the beat the Lakers!). In the 1992-93 season, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns, where he would play his best years, before going to the Houston Rockets to join Hakeem Olajuwan and Clyde Drexler and to try to win a championship in his latter years before retiring before planned in 2000 at the age of 36, after rupturing a quadricep. Barkley was an undersized post man who made a bigger impact on the game than most in his era with hard work, honesty and passion.
Sir Charles began his career on a championship team. He was not a leader of the team, but he learned from the veteran leaders. Something we should all do, learn from those who have come before. While playing with Dr. J surely benefited him, he obviously took the most from Moses Malone. Moses Malone was a fellow post player, who prided himself on rebounding was a great mentor for "The Round Mound of Rebound" to have show him the way. He taught him to work hard and prepare for games, the seasons and the life of a professional athlete.
By 1988, Malone and Erving were both gone (trade and retirement), and Barkley was the team leader. Doing all he could with the limited resources the 76ers management gave him, he relocated via trade to Pheonix. When you try and try and things aren't working, change something. This obviously helped, as he was the league MVP that season and led the Suns to the Finals to an eventual six-game loss to Michael Jordan's Bulls.
"Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids." - Charles Barkley
I AM NOT A ROLE MODEL. This was a popular Nike ad campaign designed around Sir Charles in the 90s. He didn't want to be one, but he was. I'm sure there were other kids around the country and the world looking up to him besides me. I mean, he WAS one of the most popular players in the league and he was a polarizing personality. He was honest about his thoughts and feelings and didn't sugarcoat anything for the public. He owned up to things he did, and did not make excuses for his mistakes. He took the credit for his faults as well as his achievements. He was passionate and competitive and often had skirmishes with players during games. Afterwards he was not afraid to say what he thought about it, rather than playing to the media as most did. He always left these grudges on the court, though.
He learned from his mistakes. Once, during a close game in 1991 he became agitated by a heckling fan and turned to spit on him, and ended up hitting a little girl. He apologized to the girl and became friends with her family and provided them with tickets to games. He also served a suspension and paid a fine for the incident. He learned from this. Here's a quote from around when he retired.
"I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."
Charles got in many fights through his career. He threw a guy through a window, he jawed refs, he played rough and took some cheap shots, but he was always standing up for what he believed. He stood by his opinions and fought for them.
Barkley never won a championship, but in later years of his career he chased his dream, joining Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and the rest of the Houston Rockets to try to achieve his goal. You should always try for what you want, don't leave yourself wondering what if. Though he did not succeed, he tried.
For the best years and majority of his career, he was competing with Michael Jordan. The two are widely known as being good friends. They had a healthy competition between them, which is important. Competing with our friends is always important. It does sometimes get out of hand. We've all had times when a pickup game at the park, a board game or even a game of Halo got out of hand and we lost our tempers. Competition brings out our adrenaline and testosterone and things get heated. This is why we should surround ourselves with good people. Our friends understand and don't hold these things against us.
I could go on, but I feel this is enough for now. Charles Barkley taught me a lot about life through his achievements and downfalls. He was a league MVP, an 11-time All Star, and All Star Game MVP, SEC Player of the Year and named one of the 50 Greatest Players of All Time in the NBA. He taught me roads to take, and roads to avoid. He taught me to be passionate about what I do, to voice my opinion on things, hard work and to stand up for what I believe. I am glad I went through life looking up to him.
I am a better man for having Charles Barkley as a role model......because he could dunk a basketball.
[I used Wikipedia to get some of the details like years and stats right, because as a kid, I didn't pay really pay attention to that stuff.]
Here are some of the gems from Youtube, there are more if you feel like checking them out.
^Start that one at 1:44
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