“Can’t Hear Half the Time; Already Got 2 Hips”: Charles Barkley Has Mixed Emotions on Growing Old

Charles Barkley recently made an appearance on Mark Jackson’s podcast, The Mark Jackson Show. The two former athletes reminisced about their time in the league and reflected on how much the game has changed now. In that process, the NBA legends discussed how they have grown old.

Chuck revealed that he is embracing the fact that he is getting older by the day.

The Round Mound of Rebound talked about how he now has difficulty seeing things because of poor eyesight. He also talked about his ears slowly giving up on him and making it difficult for him to hear things. However, Barkley is keeping a positive outlook toward all of this and is trying to enjoy the process.

Chuck is 61-years-old. Although his physique is not what it used to be, he can still put most 61-year-olds to shame. On the episode, Jackson complimented him for the glasses the Chuckster was wearing, but the latter wasn’t ready to take it as a compliment. Barkley said, “Hey, man, I’m trying to see, brother.”

He revealed that he has hypermetropia, which makes it difficult for him to see objects that are nearby. He added, “Getting old is so interesting and sad and fun. Because you get all these emotions…I’m glad to get old, but then you can’t see anything and you can’t hear half the time. Every body part hurts.”

The NBA legend added that he “already got two hips” and now he needs “two knees and two shoulders.” While the problems are endless, Chuck knows that he can get whatever he wants, whenever he wants, so, he’d rather focus on counting his blessings.

Barkley also talked about how most people have to work regular jobs that can barely support their retirement fund. So he believes he has no right to complain about getting old as a former athlete.

But the glasses, he needs to do something about those glasses.

Charles Barkley was made fun of for his glasses

If an appearance on Mark Jackson’s podcast can bring the spotlight to his glasses, it’s obvious that the Inside the NBA crew had a few things to say about it as well. On a recent episode, Chuck was doing his job, diligently as ever. He was talking about how the Western Conference is full of mediocre teams while naming the Lakers and the Clippers as examples.

That’s when he made the mistake of pulling out his glasses. Although he did that so he could go through his notes and point out other mediocre teams, the decision turned out to be a disaster. Jalen Rose immediately started picking on him with, “[Are those] welding glasses?”

That was followed by another great line from Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq said, “What am I eating tomorrow for Thanksgiving…with your futuristic a** glasses.” Barkley tried his best to complete his point about teams in the West, but the crew was unwilling to let the glasses go out of the conversation.