The always outspoken NBA legend and current television analyst Charles Barkley joins The Pivot in a wide-open discussion on topics from his playing days, competing against MJ, criticism of his recent political and racial stances to his current tv career winding down.
With only two years left on his television contract, Barkley is ready to sign off from the public eye and at peace with going into full retirement. “Fame is hard, a lot of prices to pay with fame,” he explains to Ryan, Fred, and Channing and it’s ok to step back from it.
Against social media and calling out people who hide behind it, Barkley explains the different world we live in right now and how everything thought and the statement is under a microscope. Ignoring opinions that he is too controversial, Barkley defends his stances on certain hot topics recently, especially with race crimes, police treatment, and politics.
Barkley credits his biggest inspiration, his grandmother, for his work ethic and staying out of trouble as he reminisces how he earned the larger-than-life nicknames from being 300 pounds playing college ball.
Sharing stories about the 1992 Dream Team, Barkley goes into detail about how he believed he was the best player in the world until he got around Michael Jordan and laughed about the good ole’ days. Fred says Barkley never received enough credit for his contributions during that time while Channing challenges him saying he didn’t get the credit because he didn’t warrant that type of MJ attention!
Barkley ends the episode by addressing the elephant in room of people always judging him for not winning a championship- he defends his career saying “Hey, we got to the ok corral- we just didn’t win it, and I’m good with that.”
