I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Charles Barkley [54]
When people ask me if I have any regrets, I tell them I wish I had gotten to play with an All-Star in his prime for a few years. When I got to Philadelphia, Doc and Moses were older and past their MVP years, and I was very young. And when I got to Phoenix, I had some left, but I was on the downside because I had played eight years in Philly and was starting to have problems with my back. Even though I was voted the league Most Valuable Player my first year in Phoenix, which was the 1992–93 season, I knew I had four seasons better than that in Philly. One year in Philly, I led the league with 14 rebounds a game, and another year I averaged 28 points a game with 11-plus rebounds. Earvin beat me out for MVP honors in one of the closest votes ever at the time. But we didn’t contend the way I wanted, the way we all wanted. We never got over trading Brad Daugherty and Moses. We had one real good year with Mike Gminski and Rick Mahorn, 1989–90, when we won 53 games, and finished first in the Atlantic Division ahead of the Celtics and Knicks. But that was the only year we had a really good team. I had more help in Phoenix with Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle and those guys. But I was in Philly still when the Dream Team was announced in 1991. I was putting up numbers and doing what I felt was the best I could do, but we didn’t have great teams then. So being selected to play with the Dream Team was an amazing opportunity. And it let me know what basketball people thought of me and my career. Before the team got together, they picked five to be photographed and be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. You’re one of the five who represents the country! I figured, “Damn, I guess all my hard work is paying off.”
No matter what happens in my life, there will be nothing like that. I’ve never been with the Beatles but I don’t know how they could have been any bigger than us that summer. We had 5,000 people watching us get on the bus every day to go to practice or games. Thousands were lined up on the side of the highway just to see the bus roll by. And they couldn’t really see any of us inside. We had two police cars in the front, two police cars in the back, armed guards on both sides of the bus on motorcycles. There were armed guards on the rooftop of the hotel we were staying in. And they moved the front desk of the hotel from the lobby to the very front door. You couldn’t enter without picture ID. I loved every day of it, every minute of that summer, that whole experience. How could you not have fun? I’m in the Olympics, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Here’s how unique it was. We were practicing one day when Bishop Desmond Tutu came to the gym. He met with the team, was talking to us, and started crying. He actually told us, “I cannot express to you how much you men mean to people in my country. They love you guys, they know all of you, and you inspire them.”
Ten years have passed now and some kids are too young to remember, and some folks have forgotten, but at the time we were certainly an international example of proof that black people can do great things. When Bishop Tutu said how much we meant to young people in South Africa, he had tears in his eyes and my heart was racing. I’m like, “Damn, I inspire somebody in South Africa? Bishop Desmond Tutu is telling me I inspire somebody, that I’m affecting people’s lives, that I’m large in South Africa?” It was completely unbelievable. He said, “Please keep up the good work because most of these kids know nothing but heartache.” I’m thinking, “Holy shit!” He brought with him ten, twelve kids who all had our jerseys on. It was very, very inspiring. It’s one of those episodes in life you think back on and it seems like