This article was originally published in the Dec. 20, 1999 issue of The Sporting News.
Rare numbers: 20,000 points, 12,000 rebounds, 4,000 assists. An exclusive club featuring only Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Charles Barkley. The astonishment is that Barkley did it from beneath the clouds. Officially listed at 6-6 but actually 6-4 with a body and will of iron, he worked with such ferocity and strength that Celtics center Robert Parish once said, "When Charles leans on you, it's like being crushed by a trash compactor."
Did any other superstar go around kissing teammates who made game-winning shots? Shoot free throws with his eyes closed? Play second banana to furty mascots? Barkley, whose NBA career ended last week because of a serious knee injury, was the Muhammad Ali of his game. He loved being who he was. "I won't kill myself," he said when asked about the danger of carrying a gun. "I'm one of my favorite people."
Ours, too. When he wasn't throwing a belligerent through a window or spitting on a fan, he provided enough insults, insights and nonsense to keep a hack of sportswriters laughing all the way to the typing machine, where it was nigh impossible to decide if the quotes were born of ignorance, genius or both.
Here, you decide ...
20. "I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character."
19. "The ability to run and dunk or hit 40 homers or rush for 1,000 yards doesn't make you God Almighty. And secondly, (children) shouldn't look up to somebody they can't be. They can't score and rebound like me. They can't run and jump like Michael Jordan. They can't pass the ball like Earvin Johnson. There's one or two guys out there, the other 99 percent have got to get a job, have got to get an education. They should be looking up to their parents."
18. "Ex-teams are like ex-wives. Deep, deep down, you know you can't stand them."
17. "You can be as successful as you want to be but you have to push yourself, and the only way to do that is through education. You can't blame your Mom, you can't blame your Dad, you can't blame white people, you have to take control of your own life and make yourself successful."
16. Before the Dream Team's game against Angola in the 1992 Olympics: "All I know about Angola is Angola's in trouble."
15. "It's really wrong for Black people to be racists, because two wrongs don't make a right. White people don't know any better, that's the way they were taught, but Black people know how it feels."
14. On throwing an elbow at an Angolan: "Well, he might have pulled a spear on me."
13. "We (athletes) are held to such a higher standard, and we should be. But come on, don't go crazy. Don’t make us out to be Public Enemy No. 1 because we do one thing wrong. Athletes do 99 percent good things and 1 percent is bad things, and people never let you forget about that 1 percent."
12. On Chris Mullin, who had fainted: "If it's your brain, you'll be fine. That's the smallest organ in your body."
11. "Unless you're a doctor, ain't nothing important they can't wait to call you about later. How many 19- or 20-year-old kids got something really important happening? We've had beepers go off in the middle of meetings right before the game."
10. There are people who hide everything inside — and it's guys like that who kill whole families."
9. "Any moron can score."
8. "Me and Rick (Mahom) aren't the only players who hit guys with elbows, or who knock guys down hard. But the NBA is really image-conscious. They make who they want to be good, they make who they want to be bad. But I'm not going to be Joe Bob, the All-American role model telling people what they want to hear. You can talk without saying a thing, and I don't ever want to be considered that type of person."
MORE: Barkley headlies list of best players to never win an NBA title
7. On Moses Malone's tutoring: "He taught me the ropes about what it takes to be good. He'd say: 'Hey, if you want to be the Man, you've got to be the Man. You've got to feel like you're going to score. Nearly every game goes down to the last quarter, and it's who's got the most guts."
6. On supersized Oliver Miller: "You can't even jump high enough to touch the rim. unless they put a Big Mac on it." s will yield
5. Two years ago: "The NBA makes everybody a star because they just want to make money. You got guys who can't even play that got jerseys, shoes and everything."
4. On a 1990 brawl against Pistons hit man Bill Laimbeer: "I don't know why he wants to challenge my heavyweight title. He's not even among the top 10 contenders."
3. "Dennis (Rodman) likes wearing a dress, I don't like wearing a dress. I tried it on a couple of times in the house, but I do it privately: I don't do it publicly."
2. "I like spicy things, to get discussions started. Whether we're talking role models or racism, rookies or Rodman. I was chosen for some reason to live this life, and if all I do is make a lot of money and never speak out for anybody or myself that would be a waste. I've said and done some things wrong, but I can honestly say I've done more right than wrong. Am I going to heaven? It's going to be a real close vote."
1. On retirement: "In four years, I'll be the first black govemor of Alabama. In eight years, I'll be the first black president.”