Charles Barkley was never the ‘best basketball player in the world’ but he sure as hell carried himself like he was. Chuck entered the league with Michael Jordan in 1984, a man who consistently was regarded as being not just the best player from his draft class but the best hooper in the entire world.
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Of the small subsection of fans who perhaps were skeptical of Jordan, their eyes were drawn towards another man from the 1984 Draft class, Hakeem Olajuwon. So, it’s safe to say that Barkley was never given the respect that he truly deserved. Though, he didn’t seem to care about any of it because he felt as though he was the best player in the world.
‘The Round Mound of Rebound’ always stated that he firmly he was the best player in the world during his prime and he felt a further surge of confidence when he won the regular season MVP over the likes of MJ and Hakeem in 1993.
Charles Barkley had the best game of his career in Game 7 of the 1993 WCF
Charles Barkley, after receiving little to no help from the Philadelphia 76ers front office in surrounding him with talent, made his way to the Phoenix Suns prior to the 1992-93 NBA season. In his first season with them, he led them to the NBA Finals.
However, the road to the Finals was quite the daunting one as he had to go up against the Lakers, Spurs, and the Supersonics in consecutive rounds. He would best David Robinson’s Spurs in the WCSF to make his way to the Western Conference Finals and in doing so, worked up to what would be the best game of his career.
According to him, prior to dropping 44 points and grabbing 24 rebounds in Game 7 of the series against Seattle, he approached his vet, Frank Jackson on advice. Frank would nonchalantly tell him that he isn’t worried because he has the ‘best f**king player in the world’ on his side.
Instilled with a new sense of confidence, Chuck went up to the young guys on the Suns roster and told them they weren’t losing that game. And well, they didn’t.
Charles Barkley accepted defeat at the hands of Michael Jordan
Charles Barkley never accepted that he was less than any player in the NBA. That is of course, until he met Michael Jordan in the 1993 NBA Finals. It was in this series that he realized that there is someone better than him out there.
The Chicago Bulls defeated the Suns in 6 games during this series with Jordan averaging 41 points per game on 50.8% shooting from the field. This including a 55 point explosion in Game 4.
