Charles Barkley Career Biography and Statistics

Bio:
By his own proclamation-as well as his actions-Charles Barkley was no role model. Yet the pugnacious “Sir Charles" played bigger than his height during a 14-year career in which he became one of the NBA's all-time greatest players.

At 6'4", Barkley played power forward and consistently bested much taller players. He was also one of the league's most versatile players, with the ability to score, rebound, assist and defend-and to do it all with the game on the line.

Drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984 after his junior year at Auburn, Barkley made the NBA All-Rookie team and within a few years was the face of the franchise. He was a perennial All-Star, but frustrated by the team's inability to capture a title, he demanded a trade after the 1991-92 season.

The 76ers, perhaps tired of Barkley's controversial comments and questionable behavior-the most notorious incident was when he spat at a heckler shouting racial epithets and accidentally hit a young girl-traded him to the Phoenix Suns. Charles the Great paid immediate dividends, winning the league's MVP award and leading the Suns to the NBA Finals, where they were defeated by Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. Despite encroaching back pain, Barkley continued to sparkle and lead the Suns to the postseason.

And his injuries didn't stifle his opinion-making: In 1993, he made the now-notorious comment that parents-and not athletes-should be role models for children, which although perfectly reasonable, drew bloviation from mainstream moralizers. After the 1996 season, in which the Suns degenerated into a .500 team, they traded Barkley to the Houston Rockets. Three injury-plagued but still productive seasons later, Barkley retired without winning the elusive NBA title, and went to work as a studio analyst for TNT's NBA games.

In addition to his NBA records, Barkley also won two Olympic gold medals playing for the U.S.A.'s “Dream Team."