| | PHILADELPHIA -- Charles Barkley had some ride in a career
filled with accomplishments, quagmires, feuds, controversy -- and
now, an injury that ends his career right where it began.
The Houston Rockets forward ruptured a tendon in his left knee
Wednesday night in the first quarter of what was to be his final
regular-season game in Philadelphia. It ended up being the final
game of his remarkable career.
|  | | Charles Barkley waves to fans as he's presented with a painting of himself before the start of the game. |
"I knew it was over as soon as I saw it," said Barkley, who
had already announced that he was retiring after the season. "I
saw the way the kneecap was bulging through my leg and I said,
'Well, it's been fun.' "
The season-ending injury came in the city where Barkley
transformed himself from a chubby kid into one of the best players
in NBA history.
"I guess the big fella in the sky wanted me to finish right
where I started," said Barkley, who was drafted fifth overall in
1984 and led the 76ers to the playoffs six times in eight years.
"There were a lot of people here tonight who saw me play my
first game and saw me play my last game. I do think it was supposed
to happen like this. It was supposed to end in Philadelphia."
Barkley was going up to block a shot by Tyrone Hill when he lost
his balance and hit the floor hard with 4:09 left in the first
quarter. The tendon that attaches his thigh to his kneecap
ruptured. The injury, rare in basketball, requires surgery and at
least six months of rehabilitation.
Sixers team doctor Jack McPhilemy said it would be
career-threatening even for a young player. Barkley will be 37 in
February.
Barkley got a lengthy ovation when he was introduced before the
game, waving to the less-than sellout crowd. Sixers coach Larry
Brown asked the public address announcer to stop talking so the
cheering could continue.
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Career highlights
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NBA Most Valuable Player: 1992-93
Named one of NBA's 50 Greatest Players
Member of two gold medal winning U.S. Olympic teams: 1992, 1996
Nine-time NBA All-Star: 1987-1997
All-Star Game MVP: 1991
Named all-NBA first team five times: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993
Named all-NBA second team four times: 1986, 1987, 1992, 1994
Named all-NBA third team one time: 1996
Led NBA with 14.6 rebounds per game average: 1987
Named NBA All-Rookie team: 1985
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He got an even bigger ovation when he returned to the Rockets'
bench on crutches with 1:34 left in the second quarter.
Sixers president Pat Croce, who was the trainer when Barkley
played across the street from the First Union Center at the
Spectrum, still takes a certain pride in what Barkley became -- a
basketball menace, a physical specimen.
"I was the guy who got him down from 290 pounds to the svelte
260 he's at now," Croce said. "I was the guy who intercepted the
pizza delivery guy at 12 o'clock at night."
Croce made a pitch to Barkley last summer to finish his career
in Philadelphia, but all the Sixers could pay him was the $2
million salary cap exception.
"I remember sitting down with the Rockets and saying, 'Yeah,
I'm going to retire,"' Barkley said. "They said, 'Well, we'll
give you $9 million.' And I said, 'You got a pen on you?"'
Barkley's accomplishments on the court, as he likes to say,
speak for themselves. No one Barkley's size has ever been so
dominant inside; despite what the roster says, Barkley is only
6-foot-4 and seven-eighths.
He is fourth on the Sixers' career scoring list, behind Hal
Greer, Dolph Schayes and Julius Erving.
He won his first and only rebounding title in 1987, led two U.S.
Olympic teams to gold medals, was the NBA's MVP in 1993 and was
selected one of the league's 50 greatest players.
But Barkley also has been fined countless times for verbal
outbursts and other transgressions, like the time he tried to spit
on a heckler and splattered an 8-year-old girl instead. His barroom
altercations are nearly as legendary as his basketball exploits.
Barkley had a messy breakup with Philadelphia, asking owner
Harold Katz to trade him in 1992 after disagreements about player
moves and what Barkley said was unfair blame placed on coach Jimmy
Lynam.
"I never really got over the Moses Malone trade," Barkley
said. "Leaving was difficult. Even though I wanted to be traded,
it was still hard to leave."
The Sixers honored Barkley before the game and flew his mother,
Charcey Glenn, and 73-year-old grandmother, Johnnie Mickens, to the
game.
"God doesn't make mistakes," Mickens said. "He ended it right
where it started." | |
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Former teammates, opponents will miss Barkley
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Charles Barkley says his career was over before the season started.
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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