I MAY BE WRONG BUT I DOUBT IT

Uncontroversial, positive opinions from former NBA standout Barkley.

Barkley hardly deserves his reputation for being a loose cannon. His more notorious utterances were routinely taken out of context; if he did make a serious personal mistake, as when he spit at a heckler and the gob hit a young girl, he made good his apology and learned from the error. More to the point, his reputation for being a rebarbative figure hinges on his urge to address serious issues—the prevalence of racism, the need for education, the emptiness of taking celebrities as role models—in a forthright fashion. Yet he also appreciates the reality of “star power” and the responsibility it entails: not just to play the best he can for team and fans, but to put big social issues on the table and keep people talking about them. This may mean calling Augusta National on its discriminatory policies—though he is curiously silent on its treatment of women, something that obviously deserves at least a mention—while at the same time noting that “Tiger winning at Augusta allows a whole lot of people an easy way to feel better about ugly shit like exclusion.” Much is made of Barkley’s Republicanism, and he does evince a strong fondness for money, but he comes across here as more of a Vermonter: thrifty, plain-speaking, hardworking, with a sense of responsibility and a love of his craft. Is a true baddie really about to say, “There’s no way God allowed me to make all this money, meet all the people I’ve met, and rise to this status just to sit around, count my money, and not to try to help people improve their lives”?

Barkley may reject being a role model—that’s what family and friends are for, he says. But as someone who demands that kids think and assume responsibility, he’s headed in the right direction.