Charles Barkley

Charles Barkley met his future wife Maureen Blumhardt in a City Avenue Restaurant sometime in the 1980s. At the time, she was a part-time model in the Bucks County, Pennsylvania as well as a legal aide for a non-profit organization. They married in 1989 and their daughter, Christiana, was born in the same year.

Regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken, and dominating players in the history of basketball, Barkley is among the few true legends of the game that have never won an NBA championship.

Throughout his career, he held the view that athletes should not be seen as role models. He repeatedly told parents and teachers that instead of looking at him to raise their kids, they themselves should be the role models.

Charles Barkley was born on February 20, 1963, in Leeds, Alabama, to Charcey Glenn and Frank Barkley. He has two brothers named John Glenn Barkley and Darryl Barkley. As a child, he was deeply influenced by his surroundings and developed an interest in basketball like any other youth. Soon enough, he began to demonstrate his potential.

He studied at Leeds High School. As a junior, he did not find a spot in the varsity team and was designated to the reserve partly because of his stature (he stood at 5 ft. 10 in and weighed 220 pounds). However, he grew six inches within the span of one summer and during his senior year, became a starter in the varsity team.

As a senior, he registered 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds in average per game and marshalled his team into the state semi-finals.

Despite his substantial improvements, he failed to attract the attention of any scout. This changed after the state high school semi-finals in which he registered 26 points against Bobby Lee Hurt of Butler High School.

One of the assistants of Auburn University’s head coach, Sonny Smith, was present at the game. Deeply impressed, he reported back about Barkley by saying, “a fat guy... who can play like the wind".

Charles Barkley enrolled at Auburn University in 1981, pursuing a degree in business administration. Smith immediately made him part of Auburn’s basketball program, the Auburn Tigers.

Barkley had problems controlling his weight throughout his college life, as he would have during his professional career. However, he excelled in the court and after three years, had the average of 14.8 points on 68.2% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game.

In 1984, he appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the first and only time, scoring 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks. About a year after his retirement from professional basketball, on March 3, 2001, Auburn honoured him by retiring his no. 34 jersey.

Some controversies about his time at Auburn arose many years after he left the college. In 2010, Barkley revealed that he had demanded, and was provided, money from sports agents.

He defended himself saying that the money he asked from the agents was “chump change” and then enquired, “Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" He has since maintained that he had paid back all the money he had gotten after he signed his first NBA contract.

Charles Barkley did not play the senior season for Auburn. Instead, he made himself available for the 1984 NBA draft. Eventually, Philadelphia 76ers chose him as their fifth pick in the first round. The 76ers had a team mostly comprised of veterans that season. While they were the winners of the 1983 World Series, they had performed poorly in the 1983-84 season.

Barkley and Moses Malone, the legendary basketball player who was named MVP three times, developed an almost protégé-mentor relationship. Malone helped him with his weight issues and taught him how to prepare and condition oneself prior to a game.

In his first season in professional basketball, Barkley played 82 games, started 60 of those, and scored 14.0 points per game in average. The 76ers made it to the playoffs, where Barkley appeared in 13 games, started two of those, and scored 14.9 points per game in average.

During the 1985-86 season, Barkley’s game drastically improved under the tutelage of Malone. He started all 80 games he appeared in the regular season and scored 20.0 points per game in average. During the playoff series, Barkley played 12 games and scored an impressive 25 points per game in average.

He was 76ers’ starting power forward. Although they were ultimately defeated by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Barkley’s performance earned him a spot in the All-NBA Second Team.