Charles Barkley is a fabulously rich man now after an incredible career in the NBA which has been followed by a very successful stint as an analyst.
Life wasn’t always so good for Barkley, though, and during his high school days, his family could only afford to buy him a single pair of shoes.
“We had to pool our money, so I got one pair of shoes,” Barkley said during an interview on 60 Minutes. “So my mom brought them to the game, and right after the game, she knocked on the door and took them home. I could only wear them during the season.”
“It was kind of weird and embarrassing in the beginning when your mom’s knocking on the door like, ‘Hey, who’s knocking on the door? Oh, it’s your mom with your shoes.’ And then after the game, ‘Who’s knocking on the door? It’s your mom to get the shoes.'”
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They couldn’t afford another pair for him, so they had to preserve that one pair for as long as possible. Just a few years later, Barkley would sign a deal with Nike, and they sent him new pairs of shoes on a weekly basis, which was a shock to him. He later added that the fact that they were paying him and giving him the shoes made him realize that playing basketball was the greatest job in the world.
Charles Barkley Spoke About The Game That Changed His Life
For someone who would go on to become one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history, Barkley wasn’t a highly thought of prospect in high school. During this interview, he also spoke about how his life changed during a Christmas tournament.
“We’re playing against the best high school player in the country,” Barkley said. “And at that point, I had never gotten a letter from a major school. This is Christmas in my senior year. It’s like, ‘He’s too short, he is going to go to a junior college or a smaller-level school.’ And everybody is like, ‘Well, maybe he can’t play against bigger people.’ Then from that point on, I started getting some, but I had never got a major college offer until that Christmas tournament.”
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Barkley dominated in a game against Bobby Lee Hurt, who was Alabama’s most highly recruited player. That led to Sonny Smith, who was an assistant coach at Auburn, recruiting him, and Sir Charles would shine at Auburn. His performances there led to the Philadelphia 76ers drafting him with the fifth pick in 1984, and Barkley would be a force in the NBA for over a decade.
His story is an incredible one, but Barkley believes LeBron James has the greatest story in the history of sports. Barkley also spoke about Michael Jordan during this interview and made it clear he won’t be the first to apologize in order to fix their friendship.
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