NBA
Scores/Schedules
Standings
Statistics
Transactions
Injuries
Players
Weekly lineup

 Friday, December 10
Barkley injured in return to Philadelphia
 
Associated Press

 PHILADELPHIA -- Charles Barkley had some ride in a career filled with accomplishments, quagmires, feuds, controversy -- and now, an injury that ends his career right where it began.

The Houston Rockets forward ruptured a tendon in his left knee Wednesday night in the first quarter of what was to be his final regular-season game in Philadelphia. It ended up being the final game of his remarkable career.

Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley waves to fans as he's presented with a painting of himself before the start of the game.

"I knew it was over as soon as I saw it," said Barkley, who had already announced that he was retiring after the season. "I saw the way the kneecap was bulging through my leg and I said, 'Well, it's been fun.' "

The season-ending injury came in the city where Barkley transformed himself from a chubby kid into one of the best players in NBA history.

"I guess the big fella in the sky wanted me to finish right where I started," said Barkley, who was drafted fifth overall in 1984 and led the 76ers to the playoffs six times in eight years.

"There were a lot of people here tonight who saw me play my first game and saw me play my last game. I do think it was supposed to happen like this. It was supposed to end in Philadelphia."

Barkley was going up to block a shot by Tyrone Hill when he lost his balance and hit the floor hard with 4:09 left in the first quarter. The tendon that attaches his thigh to his kneecap ruptured. The injury, rare in basketball, requires surgery and at least six months of rehabilitation.

Sixers team doctor Jack McPhilemy said it would be career-threatening even for a young player. Barkley will be 37 in February.

Barkley got a lengthy ovation when he was introduced before the game, waving to the less-than sellout crowd. Sixers coach Larry Brown asked the public address announcer to stop talking so the cheering could continue.

Career highlights
NBA Most Valuable Player: 1992-93

Named one of NBA's 50 Greatest Players

Member of two gold medal winning U.S. Olympic teams: 1992, 1996

Nine-time NBA All-Star: 1987-1997

All-Star Game MVP: 1991

Named all-NBA first team five times: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993

Named all-NBA second team four times: 1986, 1987, 1992, 1994

Named all-NBA third team one time: 1996

Led NBA with 14.6 rebounds per game average: 1987

Named NBA All-Rookie team: 1985

He got an even bigger ovation when he returned to the Rockets' bench on crutches with 1:34 left in the second quarter.

Sixers president Pat Croce, who was the trainer when Barkley played across the street from the First Union Center at the Spectrum, still takes a certain pride in what Barkley became -- a basketball menace, a physical specimen.

"I was the guy who got him down from 290 pounds to the svelte 260 he's at now," Croce said. "I was the guy who intercepted the pizza delivery guy at 12 o'clock at night."

Croce made a pitch to Barkley last summer to finish his career in Philadelphia, but all the Sixers could pay him was the $2 million salary cap exception.

"I remember sitting down with the Rockets and saying, 'Yeah, I'm going to retire,"' Barkley said. "They said, 'Well, we'll give you $9 million.' And I said, 'You got a pen on you?"'

Barkley's accomplishments on the court, as he likes to say, speak for themselves. No one Barkley's size has ever been so dominant inside; despite what the roster says, Barkley is only 6-foot-4 and seven-eighths.

He is fourth on the Sixers' career scoring list, behind Hal Greer, Dolph Schayes and Julius Erving.

He won his first and only rebounding title in 1987, led two U.S. Olympic teams to gold medals, was the NBA's MVP in 1993 and was selected one of the league's 50 greatest players.

But Barkley also has been fined countless times for verbal outbursts and other transgressions, like the time he tried to spit on a heckler and splattered an 8-year-old girl instead. His barroom altercations are nearly as legendary as his basketball exploits.

Barkley had a messy breakup with Philadelphia, asking owner Harold Katz to trade him in 1992 after disagreements about player moves and what Barkley said was unfair blame placed on coach Jimmy Lynam.

"I never really got over the Moses Malone trade," Barkley said. "Leaving was difficult. Even though I wanted to be traded, it was still hard to leave."

The Sixers honored Barkley before the game and flew his mother, Charcey Glenn, and 73-year-old grandmother, Johnnie Mickens, to the game.

"God doesn't make mistakes," Mickens said. "He ended it right where it started."
 


ALSO SEE
Feedback on Charles Barkley

Lawrence: Nobody will fill Barkley's shoes

Barkley ruptures tendon in knee; career is over

Rockets lose game, Barkley in Philadelphia

Former teammates, opponents will miss Barkley



AUDIO/VIDEO
audio
 Charles Barkley says his career was over before the season started.
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6