Tag Archives: Charles Barkley

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'Sir Charles' speaks truthfully about looters

Charles Barkley never has enjoyed a reputation as a profound social commentator.

He’s a basketball hall of famer known more for his dunks than his verbal decorum.

However, he spoke with blunt truth about a group of people who have emerged as the universal bad guys in the aftermath of the grand jury’s decision against indicting a white police officer who shot a young black man to death in Ferguson, Mo., this past summer.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/charles-barkley-calls-ferguson-looters-scumbags/ar-BBgdQsh

He spoke about the looters who protested the grand jury’s findings, telling the New York Daily News:

“Those aren’t black people, those are scumbags,” the NBA Hall of Famer and TNT basketball analyst said of the rioters, who targeted mostly minority-owned businesses. “There is no excuse for people to be out there burning down people’s businesses, burning down police cars.”

At issue is the aftermath of the case involving the shooting death of Michael Brown by former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. The investigation produced a lot of contradictory evidence about whether Brown was surrendering, whether he was fighting with Wilson, whether Wilson was threatened physically or whether the officer profiled the young man only because of the color of his skin.

Agree or not with the decision, the response by many in the community went far beyond what is decent.

Barkley happens to agree with what the grand jury decided.

His larger point, though, is in condemning the irrational and idiotic reaction by the looters.

He’s right. They’re scumbags.

 

entertainment news, national news, Sports news

'Role model' definition needs some work

There once was a time when I disagreed completely with Charles Barkley’s assertion that “I am not a role model.”

The events of the past few weeks involving some high-profile professional athletes are making me put that comment in an entirely new perspective. Role models? Probably not. Ambassadors? Yes.

The pro football players who have been caught up in cases involving domestic violence and child abuse are facing criminal charges. Barkley, to the best of my recollection, never got ensnared in criminal activity while he was playing professional basketball. He said some strange things and behaved a bit boorishly at times. He could play a great game of basketball, for which he was compensated handsomely.

The activity under scrutiny these days is quite different. It involves the law and whether highly paid professional athletes have broken certain laws that prohibit the abuse of children or committing acts of violence on another human being.

As I re-watched Barkley’s video, he said something that rings so true. The real “role models” in children’s lives are their parents. “Just because I can dunk a basketball,” Barkley said, “doesn’t mean I can raise your kids.”

I cannot pretend to know what kind of childhood the men involved in these recent cases of alleged criminal activity had. One of the pro football players, Ray Rice, apologized for hitting his then-fiancée by saying he was raised by his single mother and that his behavior wasn’t the kind of thing his mom taught him to do.

I’ll accept that.

However, what about the role that these athletes play as ambassadors for the organizations that pay them these huge sums of money? Or the communities they represent when they wear the athletic uniforms that carry the names of the teams?

The role of ambassador should mean something to these guys, their employers and the governing body — in this case the National Football League — that oversees everyone’s conduct.

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Daniel Murphy: role model for dads

The hubbub all over social media involving Daniel Murphy’s absence for two New York Mets major league baseball games continues.

I’ve said already my piece on the second baseman’s decision to skip those two games to be at his wife’s side as she gave birth to their first child. To sum up that earlier post: You go, boy!

But I have thought for a bit about how he can parlay his status now as every red-blooded American father’s role model into something constructive. Well, I think he just did. He has shown that at least one high-priced professional athlete — and I know there are many others — can place family above the sport he plays for lots of money.

Professional basketball hall of famer Charles Barkley once declared (in)famously, “I am not a role model.” Perhaps he didn’t see himself in that light, but others did, given his remarkable talent on the basketball court. He’s since backed off a bit from that comment made many years ago.

The late baseball hall of famer Mickey Mantle once said as he was dying of cancer that he considered himself a sort of role model, despite all the bad behavior — the drinking and carousing — that many believe resulted in the liver cancer that would kill him. “Don’t be like me,” he told young Americans as he was bidding farewell to this world.

The world cries out for fathers to do the right thing. It cries out for them to take pride in bringing children into this world. Too many of them — sadly, many of them are professional athletes — don’t do that. They produce children, all right, but those acts of conception too often are the result of one-night stands or “hookups” with young women. The kids are born and these men are nowhere to be seen or heard.

Daniel Murphy’s story is quite the opposite. So what if he missed a couple of games? He gets paid enough money to keep food on the table. He was there for his wife and he was there for his first-born child, a son.

Every father in the country ought to look to this young athlete as someone who has set a refreshing standard for all men to follow.