Charles Barkley has become much more than a basketball legend and one of the most entertaining analysts out there. The Hall of Famer is trying to make a change for young people becoming a better role model for them.
Back in 2015, during an interview with ESPN, Chuck described how he talked to kids and how he never talked with them about sports, about pursuing careers in professional sports. For him, kids have a better chance to succeed in other areas than in sports and education is more important than anything to him.
“They put us in a box where we can only be sports and entertainers,” complains Barkley, who never graduated from Auburn. “White kids grow up thinking they can be doctors, lawyers and engineers. Black kids don’t think that. My goal is to get young black kids, I never talk to them about sports. Never. I say hey, you can be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher, fireman, policeman, things like that. I never talk to them about playing sports. It’s unrealistic.
“They got a better chance of being a doctor than playing in the NBA.”
That is an interesting approach from Barkley, who has been investing in the young generations to change their realities through education. Instead of looking for the most common path of being an athlete or an entertainer, he’s trying to encourage young people to look for something different, to see different ways to be successful in life and not only pursue a career in sports.
He’s been very active doing his part helping the black community, getting more black students to his alma mater, Auburn, as well as getting more black people hired for his ‘Inside the NBA’ show.
