At 6-foot-6, Charles Barkley was undersized for his position. However, he made up for his lack of height with his overwhelming physicality. The forward took no prisoners in the paint, even in practice, as his teammate Marc Iavaroni learned firsthand.
Advertisement
On the latest episode of Mark Jackson’s Come Talk 2 Me, Julius Erving, better known as Dr.J, reminisced about playing alongside Barkley and watching him dominate in practice and games despite his smaller stature compared to his peers. He recalled an incident from one of the 76ers’ scrimmages where the Hall of Famer showed no mercy to Iavaroni and left him in awe. He said,
“He almost killed Marc one day in practice. He just got beneath him under the basket and he backed him all the way up to the foul line. And I was like, ‘I ain’t never seen nothing like that’.”
Despite Iavaroni being four inches taller than Barkley, the forward shoved him away with relative ease. Erving quickly realized that the forward was a special player and would thrive in the league despite being undersized.
When the 76ers drafted Barkley in 1984, they were only one year removed from a championship win and still had Erving and future Hall of Famers Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks on the roster.
The quartet was touted to win multiple championships together. But surprisingly, they couldn’t even make it to the NBA Finals in their two seasons together before Malone’s exit from the team. Erving pinned their failure to win a title on a clash of egos.
Erving explains why 76ers didn’t win a title despite having four Hall of Famers
Dr. J claimed that on paper, him, Malone, Barkley and Cheeks were a recipe for success. However, none of them was willing to take a backseat, which caused friction within the team. He said,
“Me, [Barkley], & Moses played together but we never got the chemistry that we had before that. I guess all three of us needed the ball. Cheeks was like, ‘I give it to [Malone], [Erving’s] mad. I give it to [Erving], [Malone’s] mad. And if I give it to [Barkley], y’all both mad at me.’ So, that was kind of rough.”
They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in Barkley’s rookie season, but were thrashed 4-1 by Larry Bird and the Celtics. The following season, the lost 4-3 in the second round to the Bucks. Malone left the team and joined the Hawks in 1986, and Erving retired in 1987, closing the 76ers championship window.
