Outside Oberlin

Sir Charles ends his 16-year hardcourt reign

After 16 years of maintaining a love and hate relationship with the National Basketball Association, thousands of rebounds and a healthy share of dashed title hopes, Charles Barkley reluctantly hung up his kicks Wednesday night after rupturing a tendon in his knee. Few professional basketball players have brought as much unparalleled talent and personality to the game as this unlikely athlete.

The Alabama native enjoyed a volatile career highlighted by impressive personal accomplishments and disastrous clashes with fans, referees and fellow players. Despite his long rap sheet with league officials, no one can deny that Barkley came to play every night, displaying stellar talent and ferocious drive for a man whose 6'4" frame put him at a disadvantage in nearly every game he played. How else could he have held his own against NBA giants like Shaquille O'Neal, Patrick Ewing and Rik Smits?

Barkley made a name for himself as the "Round Mound of Rebound" when he found his way into the league in 1985 as a 290-pound power forward with the Philadelphia 76ers. Despite his girth, Barkley managed to snare his share of boards and remained among the league leaders in rebounds for his entire career.

Barkley's waistband was not his largest quality on display for basketball fans, as his large jowls soon garnered their own share of controversy. He spit on fans (throwing one through a barroom window at an Orlando night club in 1997) and displayed his middle finger prominently throughout the past 16 seasons.

But he boldly defended his erratic behavior and his profanity-laced tirades to anyone who would listen. "I am not a role model," Barkley was fond of saying. "I am a professional athlete." This famous mantra sparked a whole marketing campaign centered around Barkley's reckless attitude towards fans and the media, but it also sparked a national debate about the role that superstar athletes play in the lives of their young, impressionable followers.

Barkley's career highlights include his 1987 rebounding title, the 1993 Most Valuable Player Award, two Olympic gold medals and eight all-star selections. He is one of only three players - along with Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain - to score 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his illustrious career.

Unfortunately, Barkley will exit the game without the prize that all professional athletes covet most: a championship ring. No matter how hard Barkley worked for his respective teams, all of his individual achievements could not add up to one NBA title. He came close just once, but he ended his legendary career without ever tasting the champagne that all champions drink after their most cherished victories.

His only title run came in 1993, his MVP season with the Phoenix Suns. But Barkley could not have chosen a worse time to compete for the championship, as Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls were greasing their wheels for the second of their six titles in just eight years.

Barkley spent eight of his 16 NBA seasons in Philadelphia and will enter the Hall of Fame as a Sixer. The beloved forward wore out his welcome in the City of Brotherly Love after eight years of his outrageous shenanigans. He went on to enjoy limited success with the Suns and then the Houston Rockets, but Sir Charles played the same game wherever he landed. During his career, he developed a keen scoring touch and an offensive prowess that left fans and opponents spellbound; meanwhile, he played gritty defense and attacked the boards with the kind of enthusiasm that is slowly disappearing from the game in this era of big contracts and easy money.

But Sir Charles added something to basketball that will never be measured in wins, losses or rebound totals. He brought personality, wit and a shrewd sense of humor to the game, and he never insulted the intelligence of his fans with meaningless rhetoric or empty phrases. ("It's not about the money," that phrase uttered so often by greedy free agents, springs instantly to mind.) Instead, Barkley always offered a refreshing dose of honesty, whether he was discussing bad calls, fellow players or the state of the NBA. He once described a particularly painful loss as the type of game "that, if you lose, you go home and beat your kids."

So perhaps Barkley was not the most politically correct player in the league, nor did he ever censor his thoughts for the viewers at home. Nevertheless, he was a dedicated athlete who will be remembered not simply as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but as an entertainer who wore his heart on his sleeve, injecting every game he ever played with incomparable passion and energy.

Barkley exited his final contest - which, fittingly enough, took place at the Corestates Spectrum in Philadelphia - with the following line: zero points, zero assists and two rebounds in eight minutes of play. It's a shame that Sir Charles was forced to leave the game that he loved so dearly on such a sour note, but fans can take comfort from the fact that he never lost his characteristic sense of humor, even in his darkest hour. "Just what America needs," Barkley said as he rode off into the sunset of his favorite Philadelphia golf course. "One more unemployed black man."