Charles Barkley could do some incredible things on the basketball court back in his playing days. He could run the floor with shocking agility, beat his defender either by posting him up or backing him down, and rebound the ball as well or better than anyone in history. Barkley had amazing talent, but it took more than that to make his mark like he did.
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Barkley was tough. He would never back down from a challenge, and he demanded that same toughness from his teammates, whether it fit their personality or not.
The former Sun appeared earlier this week on Bickley & Marotta, a local Arizona sports talk show, to talk about how the Suns have surprised so many people this year. Most expected the team to be firmly entrenched in the lottery, but instead they’re now 12-7.
Barkley praised the Suns for playing so well so far, but he believes that they need Devin Booker, their best player, to change his mentality if they’re going to take the next step. “That’s the thing I did not like about the game Friday night,” he said. I thought Devin was too lackadaisical. I would rather you be overly aggressive and screw up than be passive.”
In that 114-92 loss to the Rockets, Booker scored 18 points on 5-13 shooting. That’s tied for the second-fewest points he’s scored this season, and it’s also the fewest shot attempts he’s had this year. Dillon Brooks, a player known much more for his defense than his scoring, took nine more shots and scored 11 more points. That’s not a good recipe for a Suns win.
Barkley used an example from his own playing days to drive home how important the right mentality is. “I played with this guy named Hersey Hawkins who’s one of the good people I’ve ever met,” he said. “And Michael Jordan was just kicking his a** one night, and I was like, ‘Yo man, you got to go back at him.'”
That didn’t immediately spur Hawkins into action, “So I said, ‘No no no,’ Barkley said. “You got to make people respect you or they won’t respect you. I said, ‘Are you as good as Michael Jordan? No you’re not, but you got to let him know you are not afraid and you’re gonna go at him.'”
That mentality perfectly sums up Brooks, who’s made it this far in the league not on being the most talented player on the court, but for not backing down from anyone. We’ve seen that in recent years as he’s gone at LeBron James and Steph Curry. Are those battles he can win? No. But his teams have won more than their fair share from those legends because of that toughness that he brings.
Barkley’s humble confession
Throughout Barkley’s career, he was often the alpha on the floor, but even he had to admit that he wasn’t the man after the 1993 NBA Finals. He told Dan Patrick earlier this year, “Chuck Daly had told me, he says, ‘You’re the second-best player in the world.’ I said, ‘I’m the best f***** player in the world.’ He says, ‘No, that guy right over there is the best player in the world.'”
Barkley refused to believe it, and he told Daly that he would show them when the Suns and Bulls met in the Finals later that year. He was right about both teams making it, but once the series started, it didn’t go how he thought it would. After the Suns dropped Game 2 to fall into an 0-2 hole, he had to admit the truth that was now obvious to see.
“I ain’t never said this in my life,” he told his upset daughter. “I think that guy might be better at basketball than I am.” Four games later, he knew for sure, as the Bulls took the series, and their third straight title, by closing the Suns out in Game 6.
Taking it back to Booker, Barkley is right that the Suns need him to be aggressive. Since the beginning of the month, he’s shooting the ball over 18 times per game, and the Suns are 11-3 in that period. He was aggressive against the Kings on Wednesday, and even though his shot wasn’t falling —he was just 6-22 from the field — the Suns got a 12-point road win anyway.
