Growing up as a sports fan, it’s only natural to mimic your favorite athlete — their style, attitude, and even their name. For Travis Kelce, that athlete was Charles Barkley.
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Barkley never played for the Cavaliers, Kelce’s hometown team, but he clearly made an impression. Watching Sir Charles snatch rebounds over bigger, taller guys, bulldoze down the court like a freight train, and throw slick no-look passes must have blown Kelce away—so much so that he actually wanted to be named Charles.
Travis’ brother, Jason, shared this story on The Stream Room, calling Barkley — aka Chuck, the Chuckster — “the biggest star in our household.”
It is quite interesting that Jason to do this podcast with Barkley, after the latter’s comments on the Kelces a few months ago. Barkley bantered that the brothers did not deserve to be honored with the ‘Sexiest Podcast Hosts Alive’ award by People’s Magazine in October 2024.
However, Jason, who once got the chance to tee it off with the NBA legend, considered it “the pinnacle of things” he had hoped to achieve when meeting a sports figure. But for Travis, it went beyond just admiration — he was obsessed.
Jason revealed that Travis told all their neighbors his name was Charles. And it had been going on for a while—until at a block party when everyone started referring to the future NFL tight end as “Charles.” The Kelces were naturally confused and corrected them, but at the same time, they realized just how much Travis admired the NBA star.
“He (Travis) wanted to be Charles Barkley so bad. We found out at a block party when everybody was coming out of their house, and (they went) like, ‘Oh, look at Charles running out there.’ And we’re like, ‘Charles? What are you talking about? That’s Travis. (The neighbors replied, ‘Oh, he told us, his name was Charles,” Jason recounted.
However, there’s an even crazier twist to this story, as host Ernie Johnson revealed that Charles also wanted a different name growing up — and that name was actually Travis. Now that’s irony at its finest.
Barkley recounted that, growing up, there was a “stud” of a hooper named Travis Abernathy playing in his city—specifically for Leeds High School. He was so impressed by this baller that he even wanted to change his name, which understandably infuriated his mother, Charcey Glenn.
She reminded the future NBA star that his name came from his maternal grandfather, but Barkley didn’t care. He simply didn’t want a nobody’s name.
“Because Travis was like the stud in town, I said to my mom, ‘I wanna change my name to Travis.’ She says, ‘Why?’ (I said), ‘Cause he’s the best athlete in our city. And there’s nobody named (Charles who is famous in sports.) Name me one famous Charles who played sports. I want to change my name and I’ll be a much better player,” narrated the 1993 NBA MVP.
“This is a 100% true story, Jason. And my mom’s like, ‘You’re the biggest damn idiot in the world (Jason and Ernie laugh). You’re named after your grandfather, and I’m not changing your name… And I said, yeah, ‘That’s a perfect example, he’s a nobody,'” Barkley added.
It’s hilarious to think that even our favorite athletes did the same silly things growing up that we did. Barkley once worried about being a nobody, not knowing of any famous athlete named Charles — but now, he’s the one who made the name legendary.
As for Travis, he’s cemented his place in NFL history as a standout tight end, with some even calling him the GOAT-TE. Safe to say, he’s more than happy with his name now — just like Barkley.
