Philly Jocks: Where Are They Now?: The Continuing Adventures of Charles Barkley

He started shedding pounds, and was changing in other ways, too. The money he’d been dropping at casinos had been making headlines; Barkley’s public comments (“I don’t consider it a problem, because I can afford to gamble,” he said after reports surfaced of overnight million-dollar losses) had the ring of rationalization. So around the time that Saturday Night Live did a skit about him having to host a casino-based talk show to pay off his debts, friends say, he quit gambling … at least, for now.

Pro athletes are schooled in the surreal at an early age. Packed stadiums chant their names when they’re in their teens, and if they’re lucky, they make it into their 30s before retiring — when the rest of us are still looking forward. No wonder so few (paging Brett Favre) have reached peace with the concept of “retirement.” Barkley’s friend Jordan certainly hasn’t; he’s been searching for ways to replace the adulation, the ego gratification, the adrenaline rush that being the best in the world — the best ever — provided. After his retirement, Jordan got hooked on motorcycle thrill-racing, sans helmet, riding the streets of Chicago at two and three in the morning, popping wheelies and marking the streets with his rabid skid marks.

“You can’t replace what you had back then,” Barkley said that night at Chops. When he came face-to-face with the end of his playing days at age 37, after tearing up his knee, he knew whom to look to. “Magic figured out retirement,” he said.

Barkley had seen how Magic Johnson, in the fight against AIDS, found something to stand for beyond the orbit of his own ego. “That’s why I give away $1 million a year every year to my high school in Alabama in scholarships,” Barkley said. “I give my college $1 million to recruit minorities. I gave $1 million to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. When you’re famous, you’ve been given a gift. The key to handling that gift is to make sure you try and make the world a better place. You gotta stand for something bigger than yourself.”

Few people know of Barkley’s good works. “I don’t believe in public relations,” he said. “I’m not trying to impress these idiots out here in the media. I don’t do it to be told I’m a great guy. Honestly, I do it because it feels like I was born to do it.”