Might I add this snippet from the Charles, talking about one of his potential deficiencies as a governor, and how he might compensate for it:
"I don’t know anything about a lot of things, but I would ask somebody and try to make a fair, honest decision for the majority of the people. Not the rich, not the poor, not the black, not the white," Barkley said. "When you get elected to public office, you’re supposed to represent everybody. Your job is not to take care of the rich or the poor or the black or the white. Your job is to take care of everybody."
Wow. Viva la Charles, yet again.
And one more example of Charles’ sterling manliness:
CHARLES BARKLEY says he’s “flattered and honored” to be the namesake of Gnarls Barkley, the hip-hop/rock duo comprising Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo.
The Round Mound of Rebound says he has their CD “St. Elsewhere,” and “it’s pretty good, an interesting mix of rock and rap.”
“I’m excited for all their success,” Barkley told us yesterday.
I would have been so disappointed if Charles had made an issue of it (like Rosa Parks did with the Outkast song named after her), but, of course, he was cool about it.
I find it amusing, and yet perfect, that Charles Barkley seems to be evolving into the patron saint of Masculinity and its Discontents. Back when I really cared about basketball, which was until about the age of 15, I was a Sixers fan, and Charles was my fave.
I don’t really know why, aside from the obvious fact that he was the Sixers’ marquis player, but it had something to do with his weird basketball physicality. He was, as Jamie writes, "undersized for his position by several inches, stuffed with junk food, hungover, and at least fifteen pounds overweight." Not only that, but rather than play the outside game that most undersized forwards play, Charles played inside, somehow playing bigger than the bigger guys around him.
My affection for Charles shares something with my affection for John McEnroe — another guy whose body is totally wrong for his sport who managed to not just play amazing ball but to play a big man’s game. McEnroe, also, was obnoxious in the way that Barkley can be. More so.
