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Charles Barkley (1963-) - Eleven-Time NBA All-Star (1984-2000) and "The Round Mound of Rebound"


DaveO

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Admittedly I'm a basketball junkie.  Its nice to have an outlet like this section of DR.com. I can rip off a quick piece without the need to create my own blog, be an editor, research, write, rewrite, edit, find and place pictures, and spend an enormous amount of time on each piece.   This is easier, quicker.  Thanks, Don.

But I found this article, "Kevin Love: Overrated, Underrated, or Properly Rated?" about the ongoing Kevin Love trade, written by Bill Simmons to include a wonderful piece that completely captures the unique basketball brilliance that made Barkley one of the signature players of the NBA.

Simmons is the editor of Grantland a repository of smart and clever writers about sports.  Simmon's expertise is basketball.  He is an unabashed junkie, a fan, a Boston Celtics homer, and combines love of the game with research and wonderful writing.

In the above referenced article he strives to dissect the Kevin Love trade to Cleveland matching Love up with LeBron James.  Its a high risk trade on behalf of both teams.   Cleveland is giving up someone who could develop into an all-time all star, Andrew Wiggins before he ever plays a game in the NBA.  Love is a current star, but is not an all-time transcendent player.  Wiggins might develop into one of those unique players.  Wiggins almost assuredly couldn't pair with LeBron at this point and contribute the strengths that Love can provide right now.  The trade offers drama and its consequences or who made out best won't be decided for years to come. Meanwhile matching Love with Lebron today creates the possibility of an instant top of the line contender for NBA championship honors for next season and possibly a couple of seasons.

Simmons' articles often include long discourses on NBA history and various stars.  He has an inimitable style of writing with catchy phrases and thoughts.  I thought he hit a home run in this one especially as he compared Love to Barkley when Barkley was traded in his prime.  Simmons acknowledges Love is no Barkley and here are his thoughts on "Sir Charles" when he was at his best......

(my bolding of certain lines below)

Let's return to Barkley for a second, because that's the best parallel here. I was there for Barkley. The whole time. He's one of the best 25 players ever by any calculation "” good enough to steal the 1993 MVP from Jordan, good enough to tear through the 1992 Olympics as the team's second-best player by all accounts (and yes, the Mailman, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing were on that team), good enough to average a 24-12 with 55 percent shooting during his 12-year peak, good enough to drag 53 wins and a second-round playoff appearance out of a pedestrian 1990 Sixers squad in a LOADED league, and good enough to bring the 1993 Suns within a hair of beating Jordan's Bulls (and earn "Critically Acclaimed" status forever, which is almost as fun). Barkley was definitely a superstar, whereas Love is an almost-but-not-quite superstar. Big difference.

Oh, and in 1992, Barkley was traded to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry "¦ while Barkley was still in his prime.

(Hmmmmmmmmmm.)

We didn't really have the Internet in 1992, but if we did, Charles Barkley would have been picked apart the same way we pick Love apart right now. Again, Barkley was a better player. (And a different player.) And Barkley was un-freaking-believable in person. He wasn't just on my "Oh, cool, he's coming to town tonight and I get to go!!!!" list during his first 10-11 years; he's on my permanent all-time list with people like MJ, Magic and Julius. Seeing young Barkley was like seeing a tornado with legs. I love watching Kevin Love, but I don't think I would ever tell my grandkids about him. I'd tell my grandkids about seeing Chuck.

Other than that, it's easier to compare Love and Barkley than I thought. Like Love, the 6-foot-4 Barkley was a spectacular scorer-rebounder, a surprisingly good passer, a favorite of the advanced-metrics dudes, and a superduperentertaining player who always came off more impressively when you watched him in person.

"¢ Like Love, Barkley battled weight issues early in his career that led to him dropping lower in the draft than he should have gone.

"¢ Like Love, Barkley was a below-average defensive player who ideally needed to be flanked by a shot-blocker, although he protected the rim much better than Love does.

"¢ Like Love, Barkley's greatness bubbled to the surface at the Olympics when he was surrounded by better players.

"¢ Like Love, you always wished Barkley would shoot fewer 3s and crash the boards a little bit more. (Although Love is a much better 3-point shooter than Barkley was.)

"¢ Like Love, Barkley spent the first chunk of his career saddled by terrible luck (Andrew Toney's feet, Roy Hinson's knees, Johnny Dawkins's everything) and atrocious management (the Sixers stupidly traded Moses Malone for Jeff Ruland and Cliff Robinson, and they inexplicably traded the Brad Daugherty pick to Cleveland for Hinson).

"¢ Like Love, Barkley possessed one unique skill that belonged to him and only him. Love throws those incredible once-in-a-generation outlet passes that have Wes Unseld's DNA dripping from them. Barkley could grab rebounds in traffic, take off full-court and finish the play like a runaway train "” not even LeBron and Blake make opponents say to themselves, "F"” this, I'm getting out of the way," quite like Barkley did.

"¢ And like Love, Barkley had evolved into a polarizing personality by the time that 1991-92 season ended. Here's what Clifton Brown wrote for the New York Times in his story about the Barkley trade. My notes are in parentheses.

"The 76ers acknowledged they were trading a superstar, but they are gambling that acquiring three quality players from Phoenix will make them a better team."

(The 76ers went 115-295 over the next five seasons. To extend that gambling analogy, Philly was the guy on your Vegas trip who lost $500 an hour after everyone got there, disappeared in a huff, found the seediest club possible, woke up in his hotel room the next day with no wallet and no pants, then texted everyone later that day saying, "Heading home "” it's a long story.")

"The 76ers finished 35-47 last season, the poorest record in Barkley's eight years with the team.

"Barkley's playing style did not mesh with the passing-game offense that will be implemented by the new 76ers coach, Doug Moe."

 I agree with Simmons.  During Barkley's early years in Philadelphia I often purchased packages of games to the Wizards/Bullets.  The Bullets and 76ers played often.  Barkley was a magical player with a magical dimension.  Nobody has played quite like him before or since.

When Barkley grabbed a rebound on the defensive side and turned to race down the court on a drive, the seas would part.  No player would dare to get in his way.  No player has had so much bulk, racing at so much speed, hell bent toward the basket.  I sat in the stands and wanted to get out of the way.  He was SCARY.   Scary good and talented.

But forget what I write.  Reread Simmons above. "Barkley a tornado with legs"....."F---this I'm getting out of the way" That is exactly as I recall him.  Never seen anything like it, before or since.

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But I found this article, "Kevin Love: Overrated, Underrated, or Properly Rated?" about the ongoing Kevin Love trade, written by Bill Simmons to include a wonderful piece that completely captures the unique basketball brilliance that made Barkley one of the signature players of the NBA.  

I read this entire article (it's *great*, and will take you a good fifteen minutes to finish), and the one thing that stood out to me was that Bill Simmons (the author) said Barkley was the 1992 Dream Team's "second-best player by all accounts."

While he obviously meant that as a compliment, I remember watching every single game that the U.S.A. played during that Olympics, and even though (like the rest of the country) I was pulling for Jordan to "take it to 'em and show the world what a God he was," I remember coming away with the distinct impression that Charles Barkley was the best player on the team. Okay, maybe not "the best player," but "he played the best." Not the second-best; the *best*.

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I'm with Simmons:  Barkley was one of those mesmerizing forces of nature, whose play will stick with you for decades.  His was a unique combination of size in girth, strength, speed, and explosiveness that has not been matched.

Simply he would go on some of his "end to end" drives, picking the ball off the defensive board, sprinting down the court, a runaway train of indescribable explosive power.  The opposition avoided Barkley at all costs.  Automobiles fear runaway trains.  Mere basketball players stayed out of his way as he raced to the basket.

Barkley had explosive jumping ability.  He had quick leaps and great leaps and levitated around the basket dunking with power or providing astonishing blocks on the defensive end.

Some of his exploits from his early years....

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I'm with Simmons:  Barkley was one of those mesmerizing forces of nature, whose play will stick with you for decades.  His was a unique combination of size in girth, strength, speed, and explosiveness that has not been matched.

Simply he would go on some of his "end to end" drives, picking the ball off the defensive board, sprinting down the court, a runaway train of indescribable explosive power.  The opposition avoided Barkley at all costs.  Automobiles fear runaway trains.  Mere basketball players stayed out of his way as he raced to the basket.

Barkley had explosive jumping ability.  He had quick leaps and great leaps and levitated around the basket dunking with power or providing astonishing blocks on the defensive end.

Barkley had a "normal" NBA upper body, but was shorter than just about every power forward, and had abnormally large hips and thighs. Athletes who are "all butt and legs" (like Barkley) generally have explosive horizontal quickness, but can't jump worth a damn; Barkley - although he lacked the ability to sky - had explosive horizontal bursts of speed combined with an acceptable vertical leap, thus making him something of a freak of nature right there. He couldn't play above the rim, but he could get plenty high enough to dunk the crap out of it, and to block shots effectively for a man of his height. Combine that with a nearly point-guard ability to dribble and spin, and you've got yourself a nightmare opponent. People watching that video will be impressed, but they won't be *that* impressed; Barkley was much more imposing in person.

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Barkley had a "normal" NBA upper body, but was shorter than just about every power forward, and had abnormally large hips and thighs. Athletes who are "all butt and legs" (like Barkley) generally have explosive horizontal quickness, but can't jump worth a damn; Barkley - although he lacked the ability to sky - had explosive horizontal bursts of speed combined with an acceptable vertical leap, thus making him something of a freak of nature right there. He couldn't play above the rim, but he could get plenty high enough to dunk the crap out of it, and to block shots effectively for a man of his height. Combine that with a nearly point-guard ability to dribble and spin, and you've got yourself a nightmare opponent. People watching that video will be impressed, but they won't be *that* impressed; Barkley was much more imposing in person.

Barkley was one of the players I most enjoyed watching.  During his first decade or so he was a dynamo, a unique combination of strength, explosiveness and speed.   Basketball is the team sport that enables fans to see this at its utmost, more so than any other team sport.  Barkley stood out in this aspect.

I'm not sure if its semantics, but I'd say that Barkley was an excellent NBA leaper.  You see it above in those blocks.  As a power forward he regularly covered players that were at least 3-8 inches taller than him.  He was always shorter than whom he played.  That he could block so many shots was testimony to both superior leaping ability plus timing and possibly being a quick jumper.  He might not have ranked among the greatest leapers of all time, but he had to rank among the best leapers of his period and dramatically better than the norm.  He jumped high from a vertical starting point and also while on the run.

The players of his era acknowledged he was a physical "beast" much stronger than most.  He consistently shoved much taller players out of his way on the boards.  Arm strength, but primarily this uniquely thick strong trunk that could move virtually any opposition and enable him to grab rebounds.  Down low all those players are pushing, shoving, trying to gain advantage.  He was among the best and most effective.  He was stronger, and had to have had a powerful lower center of gravity than virtually anyone he played.

Barkley and Karl Malone competed for "best power forward" of their era.  They certainly are both all time greats.  They were different, both incredibly strong but different.  Malone was more muscular than any forward he faced.  Barkley was more of a freak of nature as you describe above--all butt and legs that uniquely were matched with incredible musculature that created his explosiveness.

Ultimately I'm with Simmons; Barkley was one of those very few stars that were uniquely memorable to watch.

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I'm not sure if its semantics, but I'd say that Barkley was an excellent NBA leaper. You see it above in those blocks. As a power forward he regularly covered players that were at least 3-8 inches taller than him. He was always shorter than whom he played. That he could block so many shots was testimony to both superior leaping ability plus timing and possibly being a quick jumper. He might not have ranked among the greatest leapers of all time, but he had to rank among the best leapers of his period and dramatically better than the norm. He jumped high from a vertical starting point and also while on the run.

Although I love this post, I can't agree that Barkley was a great leaper in NBA terms. Given his lateral explosion, the mere fact that he could dunk is impressive, but he simply wasn't a skywalker. I doubt he could touch the rim with his elbow, but maybe I'm wrong.

That said, I did find a good video of him grabbing a rebound, and taking it coast-to-coast:

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I’m a big fan of Barkley, formerly as a player, currently as a very interesting commentator. 

Just found this article from 1988

That means he was 4 years into the NBA and at the time was in the top 4 in the league in points, rebounds, shooting pct and ejections.  At 4 years into the league he was still unveiling his fearsome never matched Coast to Coast rumbles to the basket where all defenders would part like The Red Sea as recounted during Passover.

Last week he gave a thoughtful interview on politics and in between one never knows what he and Shaq will jabber about.

Barkley, 30+ years of entertainment.

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Just ran into this retrospective on Barkley, with this commentator rating Barkley towards the top of all players while acknowledging his weaknesses.  I loved watching Barkley play.  He was a true basketball unicorn in his style of play, still not replicated by any player since.  Many of the scenes in this video are repeated elsewhere--its Barkley's size and explosiveness and physical strength that stand out.  Honestly, at least in these  shots and  regardless of the finishing play nobody truly tried to body him up.  I suppose Shaq did.  I don't recall others even trying:  He was scary and intimidating:  

A little Barkley .......

 

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