When crucial decisions are to be made, your mind doesn’t tend to stick to one. It was the same for our NBA legend Charles Barkley, who was hesitant to compete because people felt he was too short to play the game he loves the most. Although there is passion on one hand, going pro was not everyone’s cup of tea. For Barkley’s physical attributes, the probability of making it to the NBA was less. Well, if not for his mother, we wouldn’t have seen the 1993 MVP. 

The late mother of Barkley, Charcey Glenn, gave Barkley the motivation to make a huge decision. The Philadelphia 76ers legend shared in a newly released interview, “The thing I love about sports, man it don’t care how rich you are, it don’t care how tall you are, how small you are, you got to get out there and get it done…Everybody said, ‘Man this dude is too small, too short to play major college basketball’ and my mom says, ‘What do you wanna do?’,” This question changed the game for him. 

Barkley continued, “I said, ‘I want to go to school, but I don’t know if I can compete ’cause everybody is telling me I’m too small to play’…She says, ‘Look that’s well out the window, you’re going to a four-year school…like the worst-case scenario, you going to get a free education‘…When I got there I was just as good as everybody else.” 

Despite being 6’6, Barkley went down as one of the best rebounders in NBA history. He finished with 12,546 rebounds. This pep talk from his mother at the right time changed Barkley’s future. 

Barkley believes the scope for such a success story is no more in the NCAA

You enter the books of history only by breaking the odds and not by just being the best out of many. Barkley was one such. Staying at Auburn changed his career, but in the NCAA today, the transfer portal is allowing a lot of bizarre things to happen. In college basketball today, it is all about the business where the schools want to increase their reputation by bringing the best athletes from all around. 

Read more: Charles Barkley Uses ‘Surprising’ Reason to Risk His Money on Washington Over Michigan Ahead of CFP National Championship 2024

For someone like Barkley to excel in today’s NCAA, it would be really difficult. Talent along with business is a deadly combo, but that shouldn’t be the case in college sports. With the business market for NCAA today, the chances of going pro get lesser as most of them would settle for things at the same level. Barkley blames the NCAA committee for it and not the athletes who choose to transfer or sign new deals. 

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Do you think Chuck is right? Share your take in the comments below.