We all make mistakes in our youth that leave a mark on our lives, so one could understand the unprecedented situation that Charles Barkley found himself in.
But it’s not surprising because he has always been involved in controversies outside of his professional career. Now he is a very critical analyst and a very charismatic.
Charles Barkley calls out photographers on NBA Cup red carpet
In fact, NBA insiders who know Charles well are aware of several controversies that have marked his career.
Like the famous spit, Charles wanted to spit at a boy who was insulting him, but he accidentally spat at the wrong person, it went straight into a girl’s face. Despite his apologies and justifications, the former player was fined and sanctioned.
He has also been arrested several times for fighting, most famously in 1997 when Barkley threw a man through a glass window.
In addition to his very controversial opinions on politics and race, Barkley is also an NBA analyst. He is quite the showman, no doubt about it.
An anecdote he recalls with great humor and pain
In this case, the former Phoenix Suns NBA player talked about his childhood, which had many highs and lows, on former Atlanta Falcons linebacker Tim Green’s podcast ‘ Nothing Left Unsaid ‘:
“From Friday afternoon to Sunday night, it was all about games, fighting, drinking. There was a fight every weekend,” Barkley revealed, talking about his childhood that left him with great memories.
Charles believes that this lifestyle in his childhood had a certain impact when he was already a mature person.
One weekend, my idiot friends convinced me to steal a six-pack of beer. I put six beers in my pants and, when I walked about 20 meters away from the house, I heard my grandmother say, ‘Charles, get your ass over here.’ It was about 9 o’clock at night, so I tucked the beers into the leg of my pants
Much to Barkley’s disappointment, the cans did not stay put. “You could hear the beer rolling down the sidewalk,” Barkley said. “But that’s how cool my grandmother was, folks. She would say, ‘Go get those beers back. But when you come back, I’m going to beat the hell out of you.”
His grandmother played an important role in his becoming a professional NBA player
Johnnie Mae Edwards, Charles Barkley’s grandmother, lived to see him inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Barkley has said that she was fundamental to his development as a player, describing her as an authoritative and demanding figure.
She was his biggest critic, always telling him to play better and demanding that he grab more than 10 rebounds per game. Since 2009, the year his grandmother Johnnie passed away, Barkley has acknowledged his grandmother’s influence on his rebounding ability. In his career, he had 10+ rebounds in 729 of 1,073 games, accumulating 12,546 rebounds, the nineteenth-best total in NBA history. She was virtually his coach and psychologist.
