Why Charles Barkley Was A Good Role Model.

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

Writing to Write

So I haven't blogged for quite some time, and for some reason I just got the feeling to write. No one will probably read this anyway, and that's fine. I'm just writing to write.
The last time I wrote one of these, I was probably talking about the Denver Nuggets. Their season came to an end in the first round of the playoffs losing in 5 games to the Oklahoma City Thunder. They were the team I most feared in the Western Conference, and I believe whoever wins the OKC/Memphis series will win the West and most likely the Championship, although Dallas is playing the best basketball I've ever seen their current team play so I won't close the door on them yet(Dirk is playing like a big man should, and probably wants a ring while he's still in his prime).

With the NBA Playoffs in full swing, I also decided that I should get an autographed Charles Barkley Suns jersey, frame it and hang it (I may never get around to this, but we all need goals), as he's been my hero since I was a tyke. Chuck Klosterman says whoever your hero is when your 9 is your hero forever, and I agree with this as Sir Charles is still my hero, though, I'm sure younger NBA fans see him as nothing more than comic relief. I even had a crush on a girl in the 4th grade because she had a Charles Barkley jersey, I later found out she was not even a big basketball fan and it was her brothers, but she will always have a place in my heart. When I was a kid, no one thought the Round Mound of Rebound was a good role model, not even him. He had a whole NIKE ad campaign about how he wasn't. My mom didn't think he was either, but she still bought me his jerseys and poster which I am thankful for. Personally, I think he was a good role model. He taught me honesty and to stand up for myself, and that effort and passion are a big part of basketball, and of life.

ANYWAY, that's enough about NBA Basketball for now. Lately I've been feeling pretty great about everything, I'll soon be leaving my crappy job, keeping my resume building job, and going back to an old job where I know people and will get more hours thus more money, not to mention I'll be working overnights so I'll be more comfortable with my schedule, I'll take very late nights over very early mornings anytime. In starting a new (old) job, I took a pre-employment drug screening today (a piss test). Whilst in the waiting room of the hospital, I thought a webshow about a hospital waiting room would be fun (anyone interested in making one, I'm open to collaborating on that project).

I've also been working out a lot lately and eating healthier. I'm motivated to better myself right now, even though I believe I'm a pretty awesome dude, I just need to look like it. Working out makes me feel a lot better about myself and gives me more energy and leads to me doing more things and enjoying life more I think, and enjoying life is what I want to do (One of my goals is to be next in line as The Most Interesting Man in the World). Working out also gives me something to do and enjoy, living in a small town you need hobbies.

I also started playing guitar again, something I'd been slacking on for awhile (due to my ex not liking it as much as she thought she did, and not much feeling like it after the breakup). The weird thing about this is, I like to write songs as a hobby, it helps me get out my thoughts and all, sort of like a journal, I guess. But I've been listening to a lot of rap lately, if you guys don't know Childish Gambino, check him out, he's fun and great and he makes his own beats and sometimes samples good indie songs. Listening to rap is good, I believe it helps raise self-esteem, but it creates a problem when you're used to writing crappy acoustic songs. So I've been writing some crappy acoustic songs with more swagger. I've also been writing raps a bit, but they're horrible, I'm sure.

This year I also decided to attempt to half-ass follow Major League Baseball, as I haven't for a long, long time. I can't watch baseball on TV because I have a short attention span and get very bored; for the most part, I can watch basketball no problem, but not baseball. I have however been to two games already this year and I had an amazing time at both. The first was the White Sox vs. Tampa Bay in Chicago. The White Sox are my favorite team because they were my favorite team as a child (until i lost interest in baseball). Frank Thomas was the man, and always will be in my world of baseball. The White Sox lost the game, and have been losing a lot this year, but they can go out knowing they got a fan back this season (even though I probably won't pay as much attention as I aspire to, I'll most likely lose interest). The other team I follow is a National League team, The St. Louis Cardinals. I've been a fan of them for as long as I could consider myself a fan, too. They are the closest team in proximity to me, and they have a strong tradition and fan base. The game I went to was against the Florida Marlins, and it was fun, we had bleacher seats in the first row behind the Marlins bullpen and a good crowd around us. The Cardinals won the game and I had a lot of fun. So I'd like to welcome baseball back into my life, even if I don't care about you as much as others, I don't feel like you care about me much, either, but we're cool.

So that's where I'm at in life right now. This seemed like an odd collection of thoughts, but that's where I am, in the midst of the upswing of a renaissance in my life. Sorry for the overuse of parenthesis, hopefully it was slightly enjoyable for anyone who wasted their time reading it, and if you did, thanks (you even made it to the end!).