Following Chuck’s career-ending injury, Bill Walton penned an emotional letter to the NBA legend.
The “danny rouhier charles barkley” is a heartfelt ode to Charles Barkley following his career-ending injury. The article highlights the many accomplishments of the basketball legend and why he deserves the respect that he has received over the years.
Bill Walton, a Hall of Famer of the NBA, has suffered more injuries than any other great player in the league’s history. He missed more games than he played in 14 seasons. Perhaps that experience gave Walton the empathy to write a eulogy for Charles Barkley’s NBA career, which was cut short in 1999 due to a devastating knee injury.
In many ways, Barkley was the polar opposite of Walton. He was too small and too fat to have the kind of dominance he did. Barkley, on the other hand, did it for more than 15 seasons. Barkley, who was listed at 6-foot-6 but was often regarded as closer to 6-foot-4, led the NBA in rebounds once and averaged about 12 per game throughout his career.
Charles Barkley defied expectations throughout his career.
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Charles Barkley put on weight in the months leading up to the 1984 NBA Draft. He didn’t want to be selected with the fifth overall selection by the Philadelphia 76ers. Barkley’s No. 34 jersey hangs in the rafters of Wells Fargo Arena following eight excellent seasons with the franchise, according to general manager Pat Williams.
Former teammate and three-time NBA MVP Moses Malone is credited with preserving his career. Barkley was given restricted minutes as a rookie and inquired about it with Malone. Malone, never one to sugarcoat things, said that the youngster was too overweight, lethargic, and out of shape. The youngster heeded the advice and went on to become a superstar.
By any measure of the imagination, Barkley was not an ironman. He only only played every game in a season once, and he missed more than 10 games in seven of them. Not only did Barkley surpass expectations despite his little stature, but he did so at an age when it was common to see two centers on the field at the same time. The Houston Rockets, led by the Twin Towers, 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson and 7-foot Hakeem Olajuwon, were the first to do so, but other teams quickly followed suit.
In comparison, consider Bill Walton’s career. When he graduated from UCLA in 1974, he was considered the next great thing. Walton, the undisputed No. 1 overall choice, was plagued by ailments. He only played more than 70 games in a season only, in 1985–86, with the Boston Celtics as a reserve, averaging just 19.3 minutes per game.
Barkley was forced to miss chunks of games due to injury. Walton missed four complete seasons and appeared in fewer than half of his team’s games in five additional seasons. Walton, on the other hand, summed up Barkley’s career the best.
Charles Barkley has been compared to a player from the future by Bill Walton.
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In today’s NBA, there is a lot of talk regarding positionless basketball. However, when Charles Barkley tore the quadriceps tendon in his left knee in December 1999, Bill Walton wrote an editorial for The Sporting News in which he reminisced on Barkley’s career:
“Barkley came into the league at a time when player specializations were becoming popular, but he never conformed. Barkley didn’t play in any of the positions. He wasn’t a power forward or a tiny forward. He couldn’t play point guard or off guard. And he wasn’t really a center.
“Yet, he was all of the above, frequently in the same game, on the same play.” He wasn’t a player who sat about waiting for anything to happen. He’s always been the one who makes things happen.”
While at Auburn, Barkley earned the moniker The Round Mound of Rebound. He flourished as the villain throughout his NBA career. And it was always Barkley who was the aggressor. He pummeled his opponents into submission rather than defeating them.
Bill Walton expressed his admiration for Barkley’s fashion sense.
Walton remarked, “I played against Barkley near the conclusion of my career, and it was always challenging but entertaining.” “At 6-foot-4, Barkley always astounded me with what he could accomplish. He put forth a lot of effort and enjoyed the roughness of the game.
“He never grumbled if you got your licks in first.” He didn’t say anything except, ‘Oh, so that’s how we’re going to play.’ He generally ends up throwing you to the ground. But he’d always come over to pick you up as if he were a close buddy.”
Barkley had a toughness about him that Walton recognized and admired.
Bill Walton admitted that Barkley’s résumé had a gap in it.
After tearing a tendon in his left knee, Charles Barkley’s career came to an end. In an article, Hall of Famer Bill Walton eulogized his career. | Getty Images/AFP/Tom Mikalek )
Charles Barkley has always lamented the fact that he has never won a title. However, his career coincided with the NBA’s greatest period of overlapping dynasties. Barkley was a basketball player from 1984 until 2000. Only six different clubs won championships throughout those 16 seasons. Only the San Antonio Spurs won fewer than two games out of the whole group.
Bill Walton was well aware that it would create a gap for Barkley.
“It’s likely that concluding his career without winning an NBA championship will leave a hole deep within him because he’ll never know the amazing feeling of satisfaction and success that comes from possessing something (a championship) that the rest of the league doesn’t.
“However, Barkley has given the NBA 16 years of his finest and earned as much money as anybody could have imagined from his career. He has said that he outperformed his own expectations.”
Barkley only appeared in the NBA Finals once. In his first season with the Phoenix Suns, he was named NBA MVP, but his team fell in six games to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Barkley was a member of two additional conference championship teams.
Walton was a member of two championship teams throughout his career. He earned the NBA Finals MVP in 1977, when the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers. He earned Sixth Man of the Year in 1986, as part of a star-studded Celtics team that dominated the NBA.
Their professional paths could hardly have been more different. Bill Walton, on the other hand, saw the spirit of a champion in Charles Barkley. He could never seem to locate an open window where he could retrieve his ring.
Basketball Reference provided the statistics.
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