Charles Barkley has been in the news a lot lately. Not much of it good, although for fans of NBA on TNT, you probably appreciated Barkley this weekend for a few positive things. The first was Craig Sagar’s comments to the TNT crew, that Barkley and Garnett are two guys that have been calling and checking in on him regularly throughout his battle with cancer. Another was when Barkley took the time to spend a few minutes commenting on how great Grant Hill’s parents are and how he regularly leans on them for advice like a second set of parents. And of course spending a whole weekend watching NBA All-Star weekend you start to realize just how entertaining Barkley really is. I personally hope he stays on the show for many years to come.
That all said, Sports Illustrated recently ran an interview with Barkley to get his thoughts on a whole variety of NBA related topics, specifically the analytics debate and comments about Rockets GM Daryl Morey. But things got interesting when SI asked Barkley about whether any other teams besides Phoenix were close to trading for him throughout his career. His answer seemed to be so open and honest it caught them off guard…
I got traded to the Lakers one day [in 1992] and they retracted the deal.
No way!
Yeah. The Sixers backed out. It was going crazy for two weeks so I knew it would come down to Portland, [the] Lakers or Phoenix. So I get a call from my agent one morning and he said, “Philly has traded you to the Lakers.” So I went to lunch and started drinking. I’m f—ing so excited that I am going to the Lakers. Three hours later I get a f—ing phone call from my agent saying that the Sixers backed out of the deal. I said, “Oh, s–t, I’m feeling pretty good right now.” So I went out and played that night.
How did you play?
I played pretty well. I wasn’t blasted, just a couple of drinks at lunch. I mean, I was excited to get the hell out of Philly.
There you have it folks. Barkley played a game buzzed. I wish I knew which specific game it was so I could track it down for you all to watch. Or at the very least check his stat line from the game to see just how ‘well’ he played.
But the moral of the story here is don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Or in the case of Mark Cuban and the Mavs, don’t plan a parade before you actually win the title.
