Charles Barkley Quotes

Charles Barkley delivers blunt, funny takes on life, love and his own shoes.

67 quotes

1. Can I Play??

2. I'm not a role model.

3. I don't know much about Angola, but I know one thing, they're in a lot of trouble.

4. You know it's gone to hell, when the best rapper out there is a white guy and the best golfer is a black guy.

5. Kids are great. That's one of the best things about our business, all the kids you get to meet. It's a shame they have to grow up to be regular people and come to the games and call you names.

6. Anytime a fan touches you, you have the right to beat the hell out of him.

7. I'd have played against him (Len Bias) for the next 14 years. I would have been in my prime and he would have been in his. I'll never forget what he looked like. He was a 'Wow!' player. When Maryland played and was on television, I watched. It was like, 'I need to watch this guy; I'll be seeing him real soon.' . . . It was just shocking. Thing is, cocaine was huge then. My brother had been in and out of rehab. . . . It was a popular drug at the time. And guys I was playing against, like John Lucas and Michael Ray Richardson and John Drew had done cocaine. I was thinking: 'What the hell is up with this cocaine? I should try this once to see what it was all about.' Then, we heard the reports were that Bias only used it once . . . that it was his first time. When I heard that, it scared me to death . . . scared the daylights out of me. It scared me into not trying it even once, not going anywhere near it.

8. Only poor people go to jail.

9. (When asked how many three pointers he made in his career) Now why the hell would I know that?

10. I ain't never seen cranberry juice without vodka in it.

11. It's called survival of the fittest. If you can slam with the best, jam with the rest.

12. I love New York City; I've got a gun.

13. I don't care what people think. People are stupid.

14. I figure if I kill the first one, word will get out. (on how he plans to handle his daughter being old enough to date)

15. Do I have a gambling problem? I do have a gambling problem, but it's not really a problem because I can afford to gamble.

16. If you go out with a girl and they say she has a great personality, she's ugly. If they tell you a guy works hard, he can't play a lick. Same thing.

17. All I know is, as long as I led the Southeastern Conference in scoring, my grades would be fine. (regarding maintaining his GPA while at Auburn)

18. This is my schedule: I wake up in the morning, decide where to play golf and drink beer all day

19. Bunch of high school kids with $70 million contracts. Damn! I hate my mother for having me too soon! (on the influx of high-schoolers into the NBA)

20. I'm still trying to get my grandmother off her old behind and into the Olympics. Why not? She can dust. (on the sport of curling)

21. (To Kenny Smith when he arrived late) When we say 'Be on at 7 o'clock,' that don't mean black-folk time.

22. Almost all those politicians took money from Enron, and there they are holding hearings. That's like O.J. Simpson getting in the Rae Carruth jury pool.

23. It's kinda great to see the Celtics doin well again 'cause that was so much fun in my day to go to the Boston Garden and they spit at you and throw things at you and talk about your mom. It sounds like dinner at Kenny Smith's house.

24. I heard Tonya Harding is calling herself the Charles Barkley of figure skating. I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized I have no character.

25. These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it.

26. (Charles in response to Kenny Smith's jokes about his weight) I am not fat, it's the camera, it puts on 10 pounds. (Kenny Smith) Well, there must be a whole lot of cameras!

27. Sports are not for old guys, this ain't baseball.

28. I voice my opinion, if people don't like it they know what they can kiss.

29. I don't use numbers, I use logic.

30. People always ask me if I had any regrets in my career, remember when I threw that guy out the window, I regret I was on the first floor''

31. That's wronger than ketchup on pancakes.

32. If you are afraid of failure you don't deserve to be successful! (NBA 100 Greatest Moments)

33. (On a Nate Robinson during the 2006 NBA Dunk Contest) I like him, because everything he does he does is symbolism. Like I can come up behind you and slap you upside the head, or I can come up on you with an altoid... I'm not that drunk. Just playing, I haven't been drinking.

34. You a knucklehead. (an insult he used frequently)

35. I don't care what you call it, any sport you have to wear a helmet for is not damn safe. (Referring to a new trick invented by Tony Hawk in the X Games).

36. And that's way I don't eat shrimp(Refering to a T-Moble commercial).

37. (Refering to the upcoming Celtics/Cavs playoff series)Kevin Garnett is going to have to cover LeBron James. (Kenny Smith asks why Paul Pierce can't cover LeBron) Nope, not strong enough!

38. The only people who distrust the cops are crooks. They're not out there just harassing innocent people. Maybe sometimes they do. But there's no inherent situation where cops are deliberately out there harassing people.

39. What bothers me the most are the Republicans and the Democrats: they act like little kids. They are lying to real people out here trying to get through life.

40. I think people got more common sense than people give 'em credit for.

41. I played against him (Wilkins) in college. Getting nominated with him, that's pretty cool.

42. Everybody in the world has an ego. The only difference between us is we have a reason to have an ego.

43. There's no medical term for what I've got.

44. One of the reasons I don't trust the media is you can't have a double standard for guys you like and dislike.

45. I just wish all these young black kids would realize how significant it is to stop acting a fool out there, killing each other, not getting their education. You know, people have died to put us in a situation to be successful.

46. I wish the American public wasn't so stupid if they realized that half the people on television make a living just to insult the other party.

47. If a guy drew a charge on me, I tried to kick him in the balls.

48. Golf is fun - until you hit somebody in the head.

49. If you get a chance to play with great players, that's half the battle.

50. Everything gets blamed on the Clintons, every single thing in this world. I think Bill Clinton shot JFK, too.

51. I'm not a role model... Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids.

52. We, as black people, we have a lot of crooks.

53. Poor people cannot rely on the government to come to help you in times of need. You have to get your education. Then nobody can control your destiny.

54. I know that I'm never as good or bad as any single performance. I've never believed my critics or my worshippers, and I've always been able to leave the game at the arena.

55. I think you have an obligation to be honest.

56. I know a lot of people did a lot of heavy lifting to make me successful and I do everything in my power not to screw it up.

57. I just grew up a poor black kid in Alabama with a single mom and two brothers.

58. I'm still going to Disney World.

59. This place? Nothing positive. OK, I want to say something positive. It's positively a dump.

60. Sometimes I have to criticize guys to try to make it fun, I mean, I'm out there trying to bust other people. I want all these guys to do well, but when they do something stupid or don't play well, I try not to kill 'em, I try to make 'em laugh a little bit.

61. The most underrated player in NBA history is Dominique Wilkins. Right behind him is Gary Payton. He never has gotten the respect he deserves. If he doesn't spend the rest of his days in Seattle, I hope he goes someplace where he has a chance to win a title.

62. I don't believe athletes should be role models. . . . We're a one-shot deal, one in a million, so we should be the least likely role models. . . . I think one of the problems in society today is that we don't stress education enough, because we glorify athletes, actors and actresses.

63. I live in Arizona. I think the Hispanic people are amazing. I think when people talk about illegal immigration... it does them a disservice.

64. I might go my whole life stealing money. I got paid to play basketball, which is a scam. I get paid to watch basketball, which is a scam.

65. Poor people have been voting for Democrats for the last 50 years and they're still poor.

66. Yeah Ernie, its called defense, I mean I wouldn't know anything about it personally but I've heard about it through the grapevine.

67. Those Grizzlies are more like pandas.