Charles Barkley was quite the aggressive player in his heyday. Being a paint presence in the 1980s and 90s, you had to be assertive to get what you wanted. It’s safe to say that the ‘Round Mound of Rebound’ did just that with the way he played, putting up monster statlines on a nightly basis regardless of what team he played for.
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Of course, with this physical aggression came moments where emotions ran high as well. Barkley was notorious for getting into quarrels on NBA hardwood. His most notable would be him spilling into the crowd with Shaquille O’Neal when he was with the Rockets and his back-and-forth elbows on Dennis Rodman.
A few have since slipped through the seams but another fight that Chuck was involved in that was quite entertaining was the one he had with Charles Oakley.
Charles Barkley and Charles Oakley duke it out
During a game between the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns, Charles Barkley and Charles Oakley would get into it right before halftime. After Oakley tried to prevent Chuck from falling over by hugging him, the latter hilariously slapped him, leading to an all-out scuffle.
Barkley was fined $5,000 for starting the fight with a slap and Oakley, Michael Jordan’s former teammate on the Chicago Bulls, was fined $2,000 for participating in it. The Suns would end up winning this game 92-78 after Kevin Johnson had 10 straight points in the Suns’ 14-1 run to close out the 4th quarter.
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This 1993-94 season was the season right after ‘Sir Charles’ had led the Phoenix Suns to the NBA Finals in his first year in the city. He would also win the regular season MVP that year. Despite being just two games away from hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy, the Suns lost to the eventual ‘94 champion, Houston Rockets, in 7 games in the WCSF.
Charles Barkley and Charles Oakley aren’t friends any longer
This incident in 1994 wasn’t the first time the two frontcourt behemoths tussled with one another. Back in 1990 during the lockout season, Oakley would go on to reportedly punch Barkley. However, media speculation on what happened blew everything out of proportion, according to ‘The Enforcer’.
While promoting his book on Club Shay Shay early last year, Oakley would go on to say that he didn’t punch Barkley, rather he ‘slapped the you know what out of him’. Since then, the two are not on cordial terms with one another.
