One of the things that has made Charles Barkley the most influential person in basketball media is his storytelling ability. Sir Charles, in his decades of playing and broadcasting, has played with everyone and been in every situation imaginable. Some of his best stories though, involve just him alone, and he shared one of them back during the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
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Barkley was attempting to shout out all the people who work behind the scenes to help a basketball arena function. But he somehow ended up on a tangent about how he used to wash his own uniforms on road trips. He said he didn’t do it by throwing them in the washing machine, though. Instead, he would just wear them into the shower.
“I’m so old, we used to take a shower in our uniforms, because we flew commercial my first few years.”
Chuck was quickly interrupted by an incredulous Kenny Smith, who said, “Wait, timeout. There’s no era where you did this. Stop, you’re making this up.” Barkley was insistent, explaining that because of the quick turnaround between games and flights, players had no choice but to wear their uniforms into the shower.
The best part about Barkley’s stories is that you can never tell how much he’s embellishing them at any given moment. Clark Kellogg joined Kenny in disbelief at Barkley’s tall tale. It should be noted that Kellogg’s rookie year in the NBA was 1982, Barkley’s was 1984, and Smith’s was 1987. Barkley’s claim that this was a product of the era rings a bit hollow since Kellogg preceded him in both college and the NBA.
This wasn’t Charles Barkley’s only wild uniform story
Taking showers in his uniform is a wild claim, but it pales in comparison to the stories Barkley has told about his time playing in the 1992 Olympics. Barkley was of course part of the Dream Team, the greatest collection of basketball talent ever assembled. While he and his teammates were running roughshod over the rest of the world, Barkley was also helping himself to a few items of priceless memorabilia along the way.
Barkley has talked about how he took warmup jerseys from Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and others, and in 2020 he auctioned them off, along with other items like his 1993 MVP trophy. The story has a good ending at least, because Barkley used the proceeds from the auction to help build affordable housing in his hometown of Leeds, Alabama.
