BARKLEY

Sir Charles Barkley, one of the great knights-errant of the court (basketball, that is), receives a full-scale biography.

Born in 1963, Barkley once complained to a reporter that he’d been misquoted in his own autobiography—and then, elsewhere, reportedly confessed that he hadn’t yet read it. Washington Post writer and editor Bella does a good job of assembling the provable facts about the man known as “The Round Mound of Rebounds.” Whether on or off the court, he has always been a larger-than-life presence. “At the height of his career, he was treated more like a rock star than a basketball player,” writes the author, who adds that Barkley has hosted Saturday Night Live more times than any other athlete. Early on, Bella asks a pointed, relevant question: “Is he the greatest player to never win a ring?” Bella lays out the affirmative case well, starting out with an anecdote that finds Barkley, in young childhood, flinging himself off a building in the belief that he could fly. He couldn’t, of course, but he could do just about everything else physical, including taking a leading role on the 1992 Olympic dream team, “considered by many as the most dominant assembly of basketball talent ever,” and passing a vertical test in college by jumping straight up onto a 42-inch wooden box, leading Clyde Drexler to remark, “He’s the best fat guy around.” After playing at Auburn, the always mouthy, always entertaining Barkley played in the NBA for Philadelphia, racking up the NBA’s highest rebound numbers, and then for Phoenix, where he was voted MVP in 1993. Still, despite outplaying nearly all of his peers, he was never able to win an NBA championship. Bella also covers Barkley’s career as a respected sports commentator—when reminded that he is now part of the media he used to complain about, he notes, “Yeah…but at least I’m gonna be honest.”

A pleasure for fans of the hard-charging legend.