I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Charles Barkley [70]
It’s a difficult transition. People wonder, “Why can’t these guys stay out of trouble?” It’s harder than you think it is. You’ve gotten spoiled and relatively lazy. You’ve got twenty-four hours a day with nothing to do and money to get into stuff you shouldn’t. How many second careers are there that most guys can do beyond going into TV, coaching or working in the front office of an organization? I wonder how many guys have their degrees when they retire. I wish there was a study to consult about the percentage of guys who do. I didn’t complete my degree at Auburn. I went back the first couple of summers; I had promised my grandmother I’d graduate. But I was making $1 million a year early in my career, and I wound up obviously making a lot more than that. If I’d needed to go back and graduate, I would have, but I didn’t. Of course economics are a consideration. If you don’t have access to that kind of wealth you’d better have more formal education and you’d better have your degree.
Economic considerations determine so much of what guys pursue for a second career, and whether they do something they really want or do something just because they need the money. Take that Fox Celebrity Boxing. How sad was that? I only watched to see Manute Bol. First of all, how much are the celebrity boxers getting paid? We know Fox is getting paid because the show had a huge prime-time rating. But you don’t participate in stuff like that unless you need the money. It’s so sad to retire and need money that badly, although Manute’s case is a little different because of the charities he was heavily involved in. And “Refrigerator” Perry was pretty much as big as it got in the mid-1980s. He had to make a little money during that period. But here he is in this Celebrity Boxing. And let me tell you who’s really pathetic: Darva Conger. She does that stupid Fox marry-a-millionaire show where she marries that clown, then when the whole world is talking about it—like she didn’t know what she was doing when she signed up for it—she says, “Oh, I’ve made a big mistake here, and all I want to do is go back to my private life and be left alone.”
I was feeling for her a little bit. Public life can be hell, especially when you go from nobody knowing who you are to everybody getting into every aspect of your life. So I’m thinking, “Okay, anybody can make a mistake and if all she wants is her private life back, we ought to cut her some slack and let her do that.” Next thing you know, she’s posing for Playboy magazine, and I’m thinking, “Oh, this is how you go about getting your private life back?” Now, she’s on in prime time in Celebrity Boxing? Come on now. I guess she didn’t exactly want that private life back, did she? Darva being on it is bad enough, but to see Manute and the Fridge . . . I’m telling you, it’s difficult. You’re in your late thirties, early forties, and you just can’t play golf every day and sit around. But on the other hand, there’s got to be a plan and you have to be honest with yourself. What really helps is to be around somebody who goes about it the right way when you’re young so you can get some idea of what the hell is going on.
You know who really prepared me for retirement? Julius Erving and Moses Malone. And I was twenty-one years old when I met ’em. I was fortunate because Doc has a great sense of business and Moses is so streetwise. Doc was starting his transition from playing to retirement when I first got to Philly. Those guys were a fountain of information. And I’m fortunate to have been able to pick their brains, and that they were so free with their time and their advice. I’ll tell you one thing that bothered me a little bit at the end of my career. I knew my body was breaking down and I couldn’t play the way I used to, and I thought one of the ways I could contribute to the league was to help some of the young guys. It’s only right, since I had benefited from the advice of veterans, to be there