I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Charles Barkley [7]
“Keeping it real” sounds like an excuse. To me it sounds like the new way for my own people to tie me down and keep me from working toward something new. That whole notion had to come from somebody not doing anything, not accomplishing anything. They want to keep you right alongside them so you can take care of them.
You tell some of these guys you’re trying to be successful and they say, “You’re trying to be white.” No, damn it, I’m trying to be successful. If a kid tries to go to college and improve his situation in life or his family’s situation, we’ve got people saying, “He’s a damn Uncle Tom.” Man, this stuff is so sick it’s mind-boggling. Even though it seems to be largely a black thing, I know we aren’t the only culture that has that. I was watching some documentary about life for Native Americans on reservations. And this one girl talked about being called “an apple” because they felt she was red on the outside, and white on the inside. She said it hurt her feelings, but it ultimately made her work harder to get away from that environment. The equivalent for black folks is being called an “Oreo,” black on the outside but white inside. Stuff like that lets us know it does happen in other cultures, but I guess I just know of way too much of it happening in my own culture.
Black people ought to want other black people to be successful and work hard and accumulate some wealth and build a new damn reality.
Caretakers
of the Game
As great as Julius Erving was as a basketball player, he’s always been an even greater man. He was such a wonderful guy, and such a complete professional. I remember being so damn nervous before my first day of camp when I joined the 76ers in 1984. I had called and asked my friends, “What do you think I should call Julius Erving? Do I just call him ‘Doc’ or ‘Dr. J’ or ‘Mr. Erving’?” I was really nervous about it because, and you have to remember, this man was what you aspired to be, as a professional and as a man. At the start of the first practice he came over to me and said, “Hey, I’m Julius,” and I breathed a sigh of relief. I’m lucky to have started my career in Philadelphia, where I could be influenced by him. One of the important things he taught me early on was to value the game. Doc put it so eloquently when he said, “We’re all caretakers of the game.” I don’t want anybody to kill the golden goose. To be honest with you, the NBA is totally different from all other sporting entities because the people who produce the entertainment and the revenue and are caretakers of the game are overwhelmingly black. In what other sport is that the case?
To do what Julius said, to actually be a caretaker of the game, you absolutely have to play at a high level. Guys can do all the crazy stuff they want to on the side, but you’ve got to play. These kids now aren’t the first to come along with personality. We had some characters back in my day, but those guys loved to play. World B. Free and those guys . . . they played, man. Bill Walton . . . Bill Walton had all that Grateful Dead hippie stuff going on, and you know that whole culture was way, way out there, but Bill Walton played ball. Even when Bill’s body wasn’t willing, if he could walk onto the court he laid it on the line. Larry Bird was a beer-drinking brother, but he brought it every single night. Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Kareem, Magic, James Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, they brought it. It was an honor to play against those guys.
Bernard King brought it even when he had serious injuries. Micheal Ray Richardson. I tell you what, Micheal Ray Richardson might have been doing some drugs, but that boy was playing some ball, too. Guys sabotaging their careers ain’t something new. Young guys don’t realize they can’t do anything that hasn’t