Because of when he played, Charles Barkley has never fully gotten his due. He followed the great Philly team with Dr. J, Moses Malone and Bobby Jones and his contemporaries were people like Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and other greats of the game.
But Barkley was great too. He came out of a tiny town, Leeds, Alabama, and stunned people because he could carry immense weight and still play at a high level.
But he didn’t impress Bob Knight, who coached the ‘84 Olympic team but cut him because he was too heavy, and after Philly drafted him, Malone took him aside and told him that he needed to lose a ton of weight if he wanted to be successful.