Date of Birth
20 February 1963, Leeds, Alabama, USA
Birth Name
Charles Wade Barkley
Nickname
Sir Charles
The Round Mound of Rebound
Height
6' 5" (1.96 m)
Spouse
Maureen Blumhardt (9 February 1989 - present) 1 child
Trade Mark
Bald Head.
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Sir Charles" for his aggressive and outspoken demeanor, and "The Round Mound of Rebound" for his unusual build and talent, Barkley established himself as one of the National Basketball Association's (NBA's) most dominating power forwards. He was selected to both the All-NBA First Team and All-NBA Second Team five times and once named to the All-NBA Third Team. He earned eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances and was named the All-Star MVP in 1991. In 1993, he was voted the league's Most Valuable Player and during the NBA's 50th anniversary, named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He competed in the 1992 and1996 Olympic games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States' Dream Team. In 2006, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for each of his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he mistakenly spat on a young girl, and as in 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Short for a power forward, Barkley used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. In 2000, he retired as one of only four players in NBA history with 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists.
Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an Emmy Award-winning color commentator on basketball. He works with Turner Network Television (TNT) as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games. In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics; in October 2008, he announced that he will be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014.
Barkley was born and raised in suburban Leeds, Alabama, ten miles (16 km) outside of Birmingham, and attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood 5'10" (1.78 m) and weighed 220 pounds (99.8 kg). He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to 6'4" and earned a starting position on the varsity team in his senior year. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 263 record en route to the state semifinals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semifinals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach,Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy... who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.
Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn University for three years. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year.He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound."
During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), is stated as 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) in his book, I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It. He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, includingSoutheastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Birmingham Post-Herald.
In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.8 points on 68.2% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he made his only appearance in the NCAA Tournament and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.
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.
His awe-inspiring play demanded full respect and earned him a new nickname: Sir Charles.
"Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position," Bill Walton said in a SLAM magazine issue ranking NBA greats. "He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."
A perennial All-Star and All-NBA selection during his career, his pinnacle may have been winning the NBA Most Valuable Player award in 1993, his first season with the Phoenix Suns. Although he made a career of outmaneuvering and outsmarting bigger players while also overpowering smaller opponents, few expected anything close to that of the chubby player from Auburn.
In his three-year college career, Barkley averaged a not-so-spectacular 14.1 points per game. However, he had averaged 9.6 rebounds per game and thus was known for his heft and his hunger for caroms. He was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 1984 but didnt make the U.S. Olympic basketball team that summer.
He entered the 1984 NBA Draft as a junior and was taken by the 76ers with the fifth overall pick. Barkley joined a veteran-laden team with stars such as Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks -- players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Yet, Barkley averaged 14.0 ppg and 8.6 rpg and earned a berth on the NBA All-Rookie Team.
Barkley spent eight seasons in Philadelphia, but the team's best showing during his tenure was in his first year, when the Sixers went 58-24 in the regular season and advanced all the way to the 1985 Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in five games. After several disappointing early-round playoff defeats, the Sixers failed to make the postseason in 199192 and Barkley wanted out of the City of Brotherly Love.
Barkley's time in Philly brought headlines and headaches. The incidents were many, such as the infamous spitting incident during a game against the New Jersey Nets where Barkley's expectorant, aimed at a heckler, landed on a young girl at the Meadowlands Arena.
But Barkley, consistent with his paradoxical nature, developed a friendship with the girl and her family. Similarly, he revealed that kinder side of his personality when he offered room and board to Scott Brooks, a young rookie whom had just made the team. But never shy of telling the world how he saw it, Barkley was seemingly always in the eye of a storm of controversy. Barkley -- whose words were sometimes satirically searing, at other times superfluous -- stirred a mini-firestorm when ads began airing in which he rejected the pro athlete as a role model paradigm.
"I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention," Barkley once stated. Nonetheless, Sixers ownership got off the Barkley roller coaster by accommodating his desires for a trade when he was sent to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
Like the mythical bird for which the city is named, Barkley found new life in Phoenix. In his magical first season with the Suns, he won the NBA MVP while leading Phoenix to the leagues best record of 62-20 and a berth in the 1993 NBA Finals. The Suns lost to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in a memorable six-game series.
Although over the next two seasons Barkley struggled with nagging injuries, he maintained a high level of play. The Suns reached the conference semifinals in 1994 and 1995, but lost to the Houston Rockets, the eventual NBA champs. And after four seasons in the Valley of the Sun, Barkley's time had set in Phoenix and he was traded to the Rockets.
Despite being just 23 years old at the start of the 1986-87 season, Barkley was thrust into a leadership role when Malone was dealt to Washington and Erving retired at the end of that season. Although he missed 14 games during the year with spleen and ankle injuries, Barkley earned his first NBA rebounding title with an average of 14.6 boards per game. He was also tops in offensive rebounds (5.7 per game), third in field-goal percentage (.594), and 15th in scoring (23.0 ppg).
Barkley was selected to play in his first NBA All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA Second Team for the second straight season. The team finished in second place in the Atlantic Division, 14 games behind Boston. The 76ers lost to Milwaukee 3-2 in a first-round playoff series where Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds.
Barkleys fourth year, his first as co-captain of the Sixers, proved to be one of his most productive seasons. He finished fourth in the NBA in scoring (28.3 ppg), sixth in rebounding (11.9 rpg), third in field-goal percentage (.587) and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. It was a bittersweet season, however as he also missed the playoffs for the first time.
Barkley was a true superstar by the end of the 1988-89 season. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season and made his third straight All-Star Game appearance. Starting at one forward spot for the East squad, Barkley scored 17 points in the midseason classic. During the regular season he averaged 25.8 points and 12.5 rebounds, good for eighth and second, respectively, in the NBA. But the New York Knicks swept Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite the team's sagging prospects of winning a NBA title, Barkley's individual recognition rose. In 1990, he finished second in MVP voting behind Magic Johnson, was The Sporting News and Basketball Weekly Player of the Year as well as being named to the All-NBA First Team for the third straight year.
He posted numbers befitting a MVP: 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a .600 field-goal percentage, to rank sixth, third and second, respectively. Philadelphia won 53 regular-season games but lost to the Chicago Bulls 4-1 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals although Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds during the playoffs.
The following season, Barkley garnered MVP honors at the 1991 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte as he led the East to a 116-114 win over the West. He scored 17 points and hauled in 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlains 22 in 1967. Barkley was also named to the All-NBA First Team for a fourth straight year. But again, the 76ers lost 4-1 to the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game in eight postseason contests.
His eighth season in Philly was his last, and it didn't include a trip to the postseason. But Barkley finished his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led the club in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons each and paced Philadelphia in scoring for six straight years.
The summer of 1992 was a memorable one for Barkley. On June 17, almost immediately after being legally cleared of criminal charges resulting from an earlier barroom brawl, Barkley was traded to Phoenix, renewing his hope for an NBA title. Later that summer, he was the leading scorer with 18.0 ppg for the Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.
In Barkley's first season with the Suns, the team had the NBA's best record and he became only the third player to win league MVP honors in the season after being traded. For the year, Barkley averaged 25.6 points and 12.2 rebounds to rank fifth and sixth, respectively. The nine-year veteran then carried Phoenix all the way to the NBA Finals. Chicago defeated Phoenix 4-2, but Barkley was brilliant, averaging 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds in 42.8 minutes per game in the postseason. He also scored 44 points and hauled down 24 rebounds in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against the Seattle SuperSonics.
Injuries would befall Barkley for the remainder of his career. Because of an aching back, Barkley vowed that the 199394 season would be his last. Despite suffering through the worst injury problems of his career to date, he still managed 21.6 points and 11.2 rebounds per game and shot .495 from the floor. He was selected to play in his eighth consecutive NBA All-Star Game (which he opted out of because of a torn quadriceps tendon in his right leg).
Barkley appeared in only 65 games and the Suns bowed out in the Western Conference Semifinals, losing to the Rockets in seven games. In July, perhaps feeling that he still had things to accomplish in his pro career, Barkley announced that he would fight through his chronic back pain and play the following season.
Barkley showed that he was still one of the NBAs best in 199495. He began the season on the injured list but returned to lead the Suns to a Pacific Division title with a 59-23 record. In demolishing the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs, Barkley averaged 33.7 points and 13.7 rebounds in a three-game sweep.
In the conference semifinals, the Suns jumped to a 3-1 lead over the defending NBA champion Rockets but lost in seven games. It was the second time in as many years that the Suns bowed to the Rockets after going up 3-1. Barkley averaged 22.3 points and 13.3 rebounds in the series, but a leg injury hampered his performance in Game 7.
After one more season in Phoenix, which ended with Barkley averaging 23.2 ppg and 11.6 rpg but a 41-41 team record and a first-round playoff loss, he was traded to Houston.
Barkley was the Rockets' second-leading scorer that first season behind Olajuwon, with a 19.2 ppg and a resurgent 13.5 rpg, the second best of his career. Injuries limited him to just 53 games, but the team had a 57-25 record and made it to the Western Conference Finals, where it fell to the Utah Jazz in six games.
The trio of Olajuwon, Drexler and Barkley would play together one more season in 1997-98 -- but at diminishing returns. Barkley's production slipped to 15.2 ppg and 11.7 rpg and the team played to a mediocre 41-41 record. This rare constellation of superstars had a short two-year life span as, after losing in five games to Utah in the first-round, Drexler walked away into retirement.
One last gasp for that ring was breathed into Barkley when, before the 1998-99 season, the Rockets acquiredScottie Pippen, the owner of six rings earned with Chicago. Barkley played 42 games in the lockout-shortened season and the Rockets went out in the first round of the playoffs to the Los Angeles Lakers. The mixture of Barkley and Pippen proved to be oil and water. In the offseason, the two exchanged harsh words through the media and Pippen was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Barkley returned for his announced farewell season, but it ended prematurely because of a ruptured quadriceps tendon in his left knee. For the next two years, speculation continued that Barkley would return to the court. However, he remained on the sidelines for good.
Barkley remains an integral part of the game as a critically acclaimed and popular studio commentator on TNT's coverage of the NBA.
Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989. The two have one daughter, Christiana.
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