Charles Barkley had one of the most eventful NBA careers, both on and off the court. Despite being one of the best players of his era, he was unable to rally his team to a championship win. But according to the round mound of rebound, he was put in tough situations by his first team, the Philadelphia 76ers, which deflated his chances of winning it all despite having the requisite talent on the roster.
Sitting down for the Bill Simmons podcast, the 62-year-old revealed how he wrote a secret letter to the 76ers after he had been fed up with the way the roster was being built. Even after four decades, Barkley is still salty about how his chances were butchered by the wrong moves behind the scenes.
“I just wanted to get the hell out of there. And what's really interesting about the story, Bill, so that summer I got arrested in Milwaukee for fighting… I've been arrested a few times for fighting, but I've never been found guilty. Let's get that out of the way. Yeah. So we're in Milwaukee. I'm on trial for that week. I spent the whole week writing a letter to the 76ers. There was no way I was going to get convicted because I didn't do anything,” Barkley narrated.
“So my attorney and I spent the whole week, because I didn't want to p*** people off in Philadelphia, because Philly was great to me… I said, basically, ‘Hey guys, I don't want to come out publicly because Philadelphia has been great to me. I love the fans. They've always been great to me. But y'all suck as an organization. I will never play for y'all again, ever, ever,” Barkley recalled.
The 'Round Mound of Rebound' was nonchalantly flying back to Philadelphia, and the letter was symbolic of how he had given up on the organization after three years of constant rumors around him being traded.
“We go out and celebrate, have a great weekend. Sunday night, I got a call from my agent. It's Sunday night. ‘You've been traded to the Phoenix Suns. You've got like an eight o'clock flight to Phoenix the next day.’ So it was really crazy. I got the golf clubs from Phoenix at my house, it was that Friday. And we're gonna release the letter Monday morning,” he added.
Starting in 1986, the 76ers made a string of moves that did not make any sense to Barkley, but he stayed the course because he still wanted to give back to the city that had shown him so much love. But in 1992, it was all too much for him to just sit back and watch.
Barkley got drafted and played eight seasons for the 76ers, averaging 23.3 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 3.9 assists, along with six NBA All-Star selections and consistently finishing in the top ten for the MVP award. But none of this was enough to win it all in an era dominated by Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson’s LA Lakers, while a young man named Michael Jordan was rapidly rising to the top.
Barkley says he was relieved by the news. He was being tied to eight teams at that time, but he could not care about any of them. He was just fixated on how poorly the roster around him was managed.
The superstar power forward was in the physical prime of his career, as showcased by his MVP-winning performance with the Phoenix Suns, the very next year after being traded, but the 76ers could not convert his prowess into a championship season.
Charles Barkley Recalls The Downfall Of 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers had the No. 1 pick in the draft for the 1986 NBA draft. It was believed that Brad Daugherty would be coming over and joining a loaded roster. But the 76ers had different plans. They traded away the top pick for Roy Hinson and cash. This was the first move that shook Barkley.
“I have been bitter and angry because that cost me at least one championship, probably two, because I was just becoming a star. We had the number one pick in the draft me and the guys went out to celebrate that night. This is the night before the draft, and we got drunk as hell. I'm like, God, I'm like my third year in the league. I think that was the first time I became an All-Star. I'm excited for the future.” Barkley revealed.
The 76ers star was looking to get Brad Daugherty coming to the team, and he thought that would be the missing piece that would put them over the hump. But the team management had other plans as Barkley got to know through a local reporter, Phil Jackson.
“It's about 5.30 in the morning. I said, Phil, explain to me what's going on. He says, ‘Well, you guys have just traded the number one pick in the draft to Cleveland.’ I said, you trade the number one pick in the draft… That's stupid. Then you trade him to the competition… I think we had just beaten the Cavs in the playoffs. I think we lost to the Bulls that year, if I remember correctly, but we had just played the Cavs and beat them in a five-game series,” Barkley told Simmons.
“So not only do you trade the number one pick, you trade them to the competition. Then they traded for Roy Jinson, who's a good friend of mine, who was a decent player, but clearly wasn't gonna be Brad Daugherty,” the Hall of Famer added.
The popular Inside the NBA panelist saw it correctly. Daughtery went on to become an All-Star for the Knicks, and if he had been on the same team as Barkley and Moses Malone, who knows how that would’ve ended. There was a deficit of big men in the Eastern Conference during that particular era, and adding Daugherty could’ve very well changed the 76ers’ trajectory.
But all of that will go down as one of the biggest what-ifs in NBA history, and Barkley will forever remain atop the list of superstars who never got a ring.