Nobody could be blamed for looking at Charles Barkley and thinking, “There goes a guy who has achieved all his dreams!” After all, Sir Charles has attained almost everything a player can aspire to in basketball, retiring with more than 20,000 points, 10,000 assists, 4,000 rebounds, and an Olympic gold medal to boot.
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He may be the greatest player never to have won a championship, but that didn’t come in the way of his induction into the Hall of Fame — not once, but twice! And he has done pretty nicely for himself post retirement too, with an estimated net worth of around $80 million. Like we said, the complete dream life.
Surprisingly, the Bread Truck wouldn’t agree. There is one dream that Barkley couldn’t see come to fruition. And it is something that has taken him a long while coming to terms with. And it all centers around his daughter Christiana.
Many athletes would like to see their children follow in their footsteps. Even in NBA, the list of father-son duos who have played in the league is long. In fact, there is also a list of daughters who went on to become athletes. Take Trinity Rodman for example.
So it’s hardly surprising that Sir Charles, too, nursed similar hopes. He wanted Christiana to become a basketball player. But that was not to be.
During a 2023 interview with Bob Myers on ESPN, Sir Charles talked about his daughter, his hopes of turning her into an athlete, and why he dreamt of it.
“My daughter is like six feet tall. She’s been six feet tall since she was two,” Barkley revealed. Seeing Christiana tower over other kids her age, he realized the potential she could have in basketball.
Chuck revealed that he had planned on bringing in the best coaches for her and getting her hooked on the sport. About Christiana, he said, “I’m thinking, I’m gonna have the best basketball player in the world.”
But he was in for a reality check.
Christiana didn’t like that she was bigger than other girls around her and she didn’t want to hurt them while playing the game. He confessed realising, “I don’t think she likes basketball,” and admitted, “It was traumatic for me.”
The NBA legend then tried out different sports with Christiana, such as soccer and volleyball, but she was not into sports at all.
The father and daughter had a life-changing conversation when Christiana was 16. That’s when Chuck realized that he was trying to live his dream through her.
Playing a sport and being great at it was never Christiana’s dream. Once Sir Charles realized it, he allowed her to be in control of her life and make her own decisions. Even though his early dream of Christiana being a star athlete was crushed, Chuck is proud of the woman she has grown up to become.
“I’m so proud of the woman she is, the wife, the mother she is. But I tell these guys, man, basketball is what you do, it’s not who you are.”
A life lesson he learnt from his daughter.
