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

On and off the court, no Philly athlete has ever had a bigger presence than Sir Charles. Now, with a new TV show (and a recent DUI arrest), he’s confronting a new subject: life in middle age

Soon enough, thanks to Dave’s presence, the banter returned to golf. Funny part is, 15 years ago Barkley was a 12 handicap. In the past 10 years, he’s developed the most infamous case of the yips known to golfdom. An Olympic gold medalist and NBA MVP, he now says he’s terrified whenever he stands over a golf ball. What happened?

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Barkley said, smiling while digging into a Cajun pork chop. “Just like we’re still trying to figure out who shot JFK? We’re trying to figure out who shot Charles Barkley’s golf game. But the perfect dramatic conclusion is me beatin’ Dave’s ass on the golf course.”

“This spring?” Dave asked.

Charles paused for comic effect. Behind all his braggadocio, there’s always been a tendency toward self-deprecation. “It’s, uh, gonna take some time.”

CHARLES BARKLEY KNOWS how to play to the cameras. After a quarter-century of fame, he has gone from world-class athlete to worldwide celebrity, the only ex-Philly jock to be arguably more popular in retirement than in his playing days. His weekly NBA commentary on TNT is some of the most riveting, and real, on television; his commercials for T-Mobile (which went on a brief hiatus after the DUI arrest) are uproarious; and his stints on Conan and Leno and Letterman are among those shows’ finest and funniest segments. He is part showman, part performance artist, part provocateur; all the headlines and controversy are the natural by-product of a personality that, as on the court in his more svelte days, simply plows ahead, consequences be damned. Privately, the brash persona has often given way to a more thoughtful introspection that’s seldom seen in Sportsworld. I’ve witnessed it firsthand through the years, as when this man-child was driven to tears when talking about his younger brother, who had a tough time with his older sibling’s fame and suffered a stroke because of cocaine abuse in his 20s. “I’m so proud of how he’s battled,” Barkley once told me, eyes watery.

Those who know him, myself included, have always come away surprised that the loudmouth who once beat the crap out of cuddly Barney on Saturday Night Live is actually sports’ most unlikely philosopher prince. As Barkley friend Dave Coskey once told the New York Times Magazine: “Most of these guys are jerks who want you to think they’re nice guys. Charles is a genuinely nice guy who wants you to think he’s a jerk.”

The volume was decidedly lower, for example, when I ran into Barkley at Chops late one night last summer, when he initially told me about the Golf Channel project. That’s when I first got the sense the show was really about more than improving a golf score; Charles was trying to get his life together.

“My doctor told me I’m one Happy Meal away from diabetes,” he said. He’d gained some 80 pounds since hanging up his Nikes. So last summer, he donned some silk and leather and started working out at Joltin Jabs in Manayunk.