On December 8, 1999,
Charles Barkley ended his long and glorious career after suffering a
ruptured quadriceps tendon. He was planning on retiring at the end of the
season, but unfortunately he had to hang it up not even a quarter of the
way into the season.
At six foot six, noone would
expect Sir Charles to be one of the
two (along with Karl Malone) dominant power
forwards in the game, but he is. He recently joined an elite group of
players who have scored 20,000 points and collected 10,000 rebounds,
the tenth player to reach that mark. Even more impressive, he is one
of only 4 players to reach 20,000 points, 10,000 rebound and 3,500
assists. Kareem, Wilt and Elgin Baylor are the
other 3 to reach this plateau. Barkley has a unique body build. He can
bang with the best power forwards, but it seems like he is best built to
play small forward. His size, a generous 6-6, allows him to also score on
the perimeter, beating bigger men off the dribble AND burying a long range
jumper. He can also assume the role that Scottie
Pippen defined, a point forward.
At Auburn he was
the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 1984. He
came out of college after his junior year to join the Philadelphia Sixers
where he spent eight years toiling away trying to win a title, but to no
avail. He was named to the All-Rookie team in 1985. In 1992 he was
traded to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang. With the
Suns he has come close to winning that prize, playing
in the NBA Finals, but he has come up empty in his quest for the ring,
losing in 6 games to Chicago. Even though the Suns teams he played with
were talent laden, with the likes of Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle, Danny
Ainge and Danny Manning, Barkley came up short. The Suns never made
another decent run at it, as Charles was plagued with a nagging back
injury, and the team lost some of its stars. Also, Phoenix just
couldn't seem to win a title without a dominant, or at least a
legitimate, NBA center.
Known for rebounding and scoring, Barkley is also an excellent passer out
of the double team. He is infamous as much for his attitude as for
his playing ability, no one can argue with his ability to dominant
a game, and rack up impressive stats while playing as a part of a
team. Out of the last 12 seasons he has been named to an All-NBA squad 11
times. The First Team five times (1988 to 1991, 1993), the Second Team
five times (1986, 1987, 1992, 1994, 1995) and to the Third Team in
1996. He was also named
to the NBA All-Interview Team in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and again in
2000, his last year in the league. 
He
won the league
MVP award in 1993, and also an Olympic Gold Medal with Dream Team I. He
returned to the Olympics in 1996 with Dream Team III, hoping to put the
Angolan incident behind him, but still being Sir Charles and saying that
he would save the rough play for the foreign countries and not the US
College
Team. Barkley is an 11 time all-star (1987-1997) and was the AS Game MVP
in 1991. He was also the top western conference vote getter in 1996 and
1997 (1,877,232 votes). He is the active career field goal percentage
leader at .555, and has recently added the three to his impressive
arsenal of weapons. Sir Charles recorded a career high 47 points on
February 9, 1988 against Atlanta. Although he doesn't chalk
up as many 40+ point games as Michael, Sir Charles can still
take over a game.
Barkley was
traded to the Houston Rockets in August 1996 for
Robert Horry, Sam Cassel, Chucky Brown and Mark Bryant. He tried to win
his NBA title teamed with other Dream Team teammates Clyde Drexler and Hakeem
Olajuwon, but fell short. Drexler retired following the 1998 season,
but Scottie Pippen was brought in to fill the void, and free agent,
Charles, immediately signed a one year deal to stay in Houston for another
shot at the title.When he is not banging the boards, he can be seen
beating Godzilla in commercials, threatening to retire, and planning his
campaign to run for the governor of Alabama. Charles, like Michael,
enjoys playing golf. In fact the two have been known to play together
on occasion, most notably, during meet the press day on All-Star
Weekend. The two swallowed a fine on that one. Barkley plays on the
Celebrity Golf Association Tour. He also has two books:
Outrageous and Wit and Wisdom of Charles Barkley. I'm not
sure if Barkley has mellowed over the years, or if people have become
accustomed to his off the cuff remarks, but it seems that The Round Mound
of Profound has almost developed into a role model...two naughty words
from Sir Charles past. Houston re-signed Charles for the 1999-2000 season
for 9 million dollars. Charles finally followed up on his threat,
retiring after the 1999-2000 season. Everyone thought his season was over
early, due to an injury, but he came back and played in the very last game
of the season, getting a quadruple single. He immediately moved to the
broadcast booth, joining the Turner Team for the first game of the
playoffs. On March 20, 2004, Phoenix inducted Charles Barkley into their Ring of Honor.
| PPG | RPG | APG | BlkPG | |
| College | 14.1 | 9.6 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
| 1984-85 | 14.0 | 8.6 | 1.9 | 1.0 |
| 1985-86 | 20.0 | 12.8 | 3.9 | 1.6 |
| 1986-87 | 23.0 | 14.6 | 4.9 | 1.5 |
| 1987-88 | 28.3 | 11.9 | 3.2 | 1.3 |
| 1988-89 | 25.8 | 12.5 | 4.1 | 0.8 |
| 1989-90 | 25.2 | 11.5 | 3.9 | 0.6 |
| 1990-91 | 27.6 | 10.1 | 4.2 | 0.5 |
| 1991-92 | 23.1 | 11.1 | 4.1 | 0.6 |
| 1992-93 | 25.6 | 12.2 | 5.1 | 1.0 |
| 1993-94 | 21.6 | 11.2 | 4.6 | 0.6 |
| 1994-95 | 23.0 | 11.1 | 4.1 | 0.7 |
| 1995-96 | 23.2 | 11.6 | 3.7 | 0.8 |
| 1996-97 | 19.2 | 13.5 | 4.7 | 0.5 |
| 1997-98 | 15.2 | 11.7 | 3.2 | 0.4 |
| 1998-99 | 16.1 | 12.3 | 4.6 | 0.3 |
| 1999-00 | 14.5 | 10.5 | 3.2 | 0.2 |
| Career (thru 2000) | 22.1 | 11.7 | 3.9 | 0.8 |
 Buy I May be Wrong but I Doubt It at amazon.com |
 Buy Barkley's Rookie Card at amazon.com |
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