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YouTube Gold: Bob Knight On Charles Barkley

It’s no surprise that young Barkley didn't get along with Bob Knight.

USA Coach Bobby Knight, 1984 Summer Olympics
UNITED STATES - JULY 28: Basketball: 1984 Summer Olympics, USA coach Bobby Knight victorious with net, getting carried off court by team after winning gold medal game vs ESP, Los Angeles, CA 7/28/1984—8/12/1984 
SetNumber: X30349

Some things just never go away. Take the dispute between Bob Knight and Charles Barkley about being cut from the 1984 Olympic team.

Barkley says that he was clearly the second best player in camp and that Knight never really gave him a reason for cutting him, but Knight, who was the coach in 1984, disagreed.

He said that Barkley weighed 283 and that he called him in and told him he could help the team but that he would have to lose weight and report back at a lower level.

But when he came back, he was actually 11 pounds heavier so Knight told him that he hadn’t done what he had asked so he was going home.

He went on to say that Barkley had never been truthful about what had transpired between them and that as a result, he had no use for Barkley.

There’s no way for anyone who wasn’t in the room to know what actually happened, and we’re sure that Knight’s language was probably a bit, uh, more colorful and possibly ruder as well, but we do know this: Barkley didn’t get himself into shape until Moses Malone took him aside and told him he had to if he wanted to succeed.