When Charles Barkley entered the league, he was an aggressive player who was incredible at scoring and rebounding. Featuring in the Top 10 all-time players with the most double-doubles, Barkley’s reputation earned him a spot among the greats. Surprisingly, there was a reason behind his aggression. He recently unveiled on ‘Club Shay Shay’ that the hostility he showed on the court had very little to do with his game strategy, but was actually a result of some issues in his personal life.
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Sir Charles grew up in Leeds, Alabama, without his father. To fill that gap, his mother and grandmother took up different roles in his life. Even though he was thankful for the love they gave him, the absence of a father figure continued to bother young Barkley. In addition to that, there was one more reason why he turned into an angry young man, and that was his Spanish teacher,
“My first few years in the NBA, I was such an a**hole, because I was playing so angry ’cause I was thinking about two people, Miss Gomez and my dad.”
Barkley said that throughout his childhood, he saw his father only ten times, and even with that scarcity, he’d only show up to be rude and harsh to him. Facing this behavior at such a young age filled him with rage, and he started using his time on the court to let out his frustration.
Chuck realized that playing basketball to stick it to people, who did him wrong, wasn’t going to take him anywhere, rather he should focus on improving his game. He said, “That was the turning point in my life. And the second turning point was probably meeting Moses Malone.”
Barkley considered Malone a father figure in his life. When he got drafted by the 76ers and wasn’t getting play time in games, he approached the late legend and asked for help. As a great leader, Malone helped Barkley lose weight, and get in shape, which helped him reserve a spot in the team’s rotation. Later, he also made up with his real father terming him as his “friend”.
Charles Barkley rekindled relationship with his father
Barkley might’ve spent the days of his youth holding grudges and being an angry young man, but once he matured, he realized that these methods would only harm him in the long run. He decided to rekindle the strained relationship with his father to get rid of that and be a better person. Even though it happened very late in life, he feels extremely proud today that he was smart enough to make that call.
During the show, he told Shannon Sharpe, “I didn’t need a dad by the time we reconnected, but I buried the hatchet because you can’t go through life being angry, because it just weighs you down.” Barkley showed immense maturity and luckily it wasn’t too late for him, and he got to spend a few years with his father before he passed away.
Even though the Suns legend did not have the best of childhoods, he learned important lessons during his career in the league. While it all worked out for him, there are several hidden lessons for a younger generation of players in Chuck’s story.
