Sir Charles Joins Basketball's Royal Court

Charles Barkley, an 11-time NBA all-star and one of the league’s 50 “Greatest Players” of all time, may need to have a victory speech prepared by November 2010 if rumors of his running for Alabama governor prove true. Barkley, now a popular TNT analyst, must have his Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement speech ready much sooner—as in September 9, 2006. On that day, Barkley, fellow ex-NBA stars Joe Dumars and Dominique Wilkins, University of Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma, Italian National Team Coach Sandro Gamba and one-time Big East Commissioner David Gavitt will all be immortalized. In this following excerpts from an interview with Barkley on the date his induction was announced, the 43-year-old gives no politically-correct answers; instead, the former Philadelphia 76er/Phoenix Sun/Houston Rocket offers honest (and sometimes really funny) reflections of his playing days.

On what Hall of Fame enshrinement means:

Well, I just think, obviously, it’s a great honor. There are just so many people I could thank. I’m going to try to do that in a phone call, just to give them acknowledgement. You don’t get to this point in your life without a lot of help. I’m just honored to go with two of my contemporaries (Joe Dumars and Dominique Wilkins), Coach Gamba and Geno Auriemma. But I’m glad to be going in with Dominique and Joe because they played in my time. I’m just grateful for all of my family and friends.

On being considered one of the best players of his time:

Watching myself play at different times, I think it was very apparent to anybody that I played with great emotion and passion. I felt like I had the best job in the world. When I was on the court, I wanted to win probably more than anything in the world. I was very fortunate enough to play eight years in Philly, four years in Phoenix and four years in Houston. The last couple of years, to be honest with you, I couldn’t play. The Rockets still owe me $3 million. They robbed me outta that! I think I was actually a great guy to play with. With the exception of [’92-93 Sixers teammates] Armon Gilliam and Charles Shackleford, I think the majority of teammates I played with enjoyed playing with me.

On the best player of those great Philadelphia 76er teams of the early 80s:

Andrew Toney was just the best. Period. He was unstoppable offensively. Unfortunately, injuries cut his career short. I tell you, when I was first going into training camp, the only thing that I was concerned about was I didn’t know whether to call Dr. J “Dr. J” or “Mr. Erving” or “Julius.” I was really nervous the night before training camp. [Dr. J] made it easy for me. He walked up to me and said, “Hey, young fella. I’m Doc.” When you go to the Sixers and they got Moses, Maurice, Andrew Toney, Doc and Bobby Jones, everybody knows those guys. I remember after the first couple days of practice, I called my friends. They wanted to know how everybody was. I was like, “They got a guy here named Andrew Toney that is unbelievable!” This guy was so physically strong. He was unbelievable.