Former NBA player and TNT co-panelist Kenny Smith heaps praise of Charles Barkley, narrating how he made the league change its rules.
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Popularly nicknamed The Round Mound of Rebound, Charles Barkley was one of the rare species in the NBA. Standing at 6ft 4, the Alabama native was undersized for his power forward position. However, this never deterred from being a dominant force in the paint.
The Chuckster used strength and aggressiveness to the fullest and was versatile enough to play both ends of the floor. Barkley’s ability to collect rebounds was something one could only imagine the big men do, as he averaged a career 22.1 PPG and 11.7 RPG.
The 1992-93 season was a landmark year for Barkley, winning the MVP and making his Finals debut with the Suns. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to get past Michael Jordan and the Bulls, who would rob Chuck of his only chance at the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Nonetheless, the Suns MVP left behind a rich legacy and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Barkley was also part of the NBA’s recently assembled 75th-anniversary team.
During a segment of NBA’s 75 stories featuring The Chuckster, Kenny Smith had some high words of praise for his co-panelist.
Kenny Smith narrates how Charles Barkley’s uniqueness made the NBA introduce a new rule.
Both Smith and Barkley have been co-panelists on the award-winning show Inside the NBA for over two decades, and the camaraderie that the two share is evidence of their friendship. Thus it was great to have The Jet speak on Chuck during the latter’s episode of NBA’s 75 stories.
The two-time Rockets champion gave his flowers to Barkley, saying the following.
“I would say that Charles is one of the most unique players that ever played basketball. His ability to be 6ft 4 and play power forward, we all know that’s unique, and he’s 6ft 4, not 6ft5. This is when you know how great you are, Michael Jordan, they said, there’s an illegal offensive rule, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar there was a rule of no dunking because of him, Charles Barkley, they were like you cannot back down for more than 5-seconds. They changed the rule because he (Charles) was so good that’s when you know you’re on a different level on the playing field that they’re changing a rule just based on your skill set.”
The rule that was brought into effect, courtesy of Barkley stated that a player positioned under the extended free throw line cannot dribble the ball with their side or back to the basket for more than 5-seconds.
