YouTube Gold: Charles Barkley Shows His Quickness

Because of when he played, Charles Barkley has never fully gotten his due. He followed the great Philly team with Dr. J, Moses Malone and Bobby Jones and his contemporaries were people like Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and other greats of the game.

But Barkley was great too. He came out of a tiny town, Leeds, Alabama, and stunned people because he could carry immense weight and still play at a high level.

But he didn’t impress Bob Knight, who coached the ‘84 Olympic team but cut him because he was too heavy, and after Philly drafted him, Malone took him aside and told him that he needed to lose a ton of weight if he wanted to be successful.

Barkley listened and lost the weight and built a Hall of Fame career. He was a 6-4 power forward and one of the best rebounders of his era.

Check out this play against the New York Knicks where he dazzles with a spin move around (we think) former Maryland star Jerrod Mustaf and then dunks on Patrick Ewing.

Keep in mind that he’s 6-4 and about 250 and that Ewing was one of the great defensive big men of his era.