I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Charles Barkley [68]
I guess what I’m getting at is, Ali’s boxing career has been over for twenty-five years, really, and he still has worldwide impact. He didn’t stop using his influence when he stopped boxing. Retirement may be the end of your athletic career, it’s the end of physical influence in the arena of competition. But it’s just the start of your adult life. And I guess I’m paying real close attention to all this stuff even more now that I’m new to retirement and trying to figure how best to use the influence that comes with playing in the NBA for sixteen years and making money and building relationships with other people who have money and influence.
What it amounts to is that God gave me some special stuff through basketball, and it just seems like a waste if I don’t do something more than play golf and count my money. Ali stepped out there, man. Refusing to go in the Army and being the first public person of great stature to oppose the Vietnam War so openly, embracing Islam, Ali put it way out there. As historic a figure as Jackie Robinson is, Branch Rickey had to find someone with the necessary demeanor for dealing with all the ugly racist behavior that was going to come his way. But Ali, you had to take him as he was. And even then he lost the three most prime years of his career. I mean, at some point standing for something important is what defines you, even beyond athletic achievement. John Carlos and Tommie Smith could have kept quiet and done nothing on that medal stand in 1968 in Mexico City. But because they gave that gloved salute, there was no celebration for them when they got back to the U.S. Curt Flood was pushed away forever from baseball. No TV career, no coaching, no front office, just blackballed. He could have ridden the gravy train forever if he’d played along, but he didn’t and now look what his sacrifice has done for major league ballplayers.
And those guys made significant contributions during their careers, which is even more amazing. So how can you not want to make some kind of contribution after your career? I just think if you are fortunate enough to have a productive career and you can put away some money and set yourself up, you have an obligation in your next career to do something meaningful. It doesn’t have to be in the public spotlight, it just needs to be something that can make a difference. Things have gotten a lot better for athletes and entertainers who are black, but not for regular black folks. When it’s over and you don’t have any money and you’ve squandered your influence, that’s just sad to me. I don’t know whether to be mad at the Darryl Strawberrys, the Dwight Goodens and the Mike Tysons or feel sorry for them. Mike Tyson has made HBO and Don King and all those leeches millions and millions of dollars. And for him to have no money or even a tiny fraction of what he made, it’s just unthinkable. Black and Hispanic communities don’t have so many people of wealth and influence that we can lose any.
I’ll bet you Earvin Johnson is getting more satisfaction from the impact he’s having as an entrepreneur in his second career than he did in his first. I know people will read this and think, “Oh, Charles is crazy,” but I’m serious about this. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people got great joy from Magic Johnson’s basketball career, the way he ran the Lakers’ “Showtime” and entertained people and played some of the best basketball ever. But from being around him some during his retirement, I really believe he’s getting more enjoyment from his entrepreneurial efforts. It’s so profoundly significant what he’s doing. He’s creating revenue, creating jobs for people in communities that go years without seeing new businesses of that magnitude come