‘Charles Barkley was the 2nd best player on the 1992 Dream Team’: Chuck opines how only Michael Jordan surpassed him on the greatest basketball team in US History

Charles Barkley may be a funny man now, but he was all business when he was playing.

Today, Charles Barkley is known as the stand-up guy on TNT. But when he was playing, he was the one-man bruiser on his team. He grabbed those rebounds just as viciously as he ate his pizzas. The man was strong, yet his nickname was The Round Mound of Rebound.

When the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona rolled around, the US team assembled nothing short of an avengers level team. How the committee thought it was fair play to send in a team that had Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and 8 other future Hall of Famers is in doubt.

Jordan was the best, but it was debatable who was the second in the order. For a lot, it was an obvious fight between Magic and Bird, but the Chuckster had a strong case, and probably was the second-best in the team going in.

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Charles Barkley was a mean and green basketball machine – no wonder he was one of the Monstars on Space Jam

For a good part of 5 years, Charles Barkley was unstoppable. Yes, he played when MJ was still ruling the roost, but apart from him, not many were at that level. Not counting the people or the years before him, peak Barkley was somewhat of a phenomenon.

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson may have reigned in the 80s, but they were on the decline. Chuck was entering his prime. Kind of what happened with Kobe and LeBron James.

The Phoenix Suns need to thank Chuck for making them a relevant team during the Bull’s dominance. Without him, they would not be anywhere close to what they were in the 90s.

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