“Cops Chased Us…Was Crawling on the Ground in the Woods”: Charles Barkley’s Dreadful Encounter Forced Major Change

All of Charles Barkley’s aspirations started and ended with his family. Before his arrival in the NBA, life was far from a bed of roses for Chuck growing up in Leeds, Alabama. With his father out of the picture and losing his stepfather prematurely, it fell on his mother and grandmother to run the household. On Club Shay Shay, Barkley narrated incidents from his turbulent childhood that shaped his life. For most of his youth, basketball kept him on the right path. But there was a time when he nearly went off track.

Shannon Sharpe asked Chuck if his mother and grandmother making ends meet while he had an absentee father impacted him. Chuck was very candid about it. “I had started stealing,” he told Sharpe. He went on to explain that his stealing phase nearly got out of hand and derailed his life, if not for a realization. “One night, the cops chased us. That was the closest we all got to getting arrested.” 

Without elaborating on the details, Barkley described hiding from the cops. “I was crawling on the ground in the woods ’cause they chased us…” He recalled, “[We] must have crawled like 100-200 yards and I remember I had dirt everywhere and scars everywhere and I was like damn my mother and grandmother working their ass off every day and you out here being a cr*ok.” 

We know how it went after that. Chuck made it to Auburn, then the NBA, made $40 million in his NBA career, even more through his Nike deal, and took care of his family. It wouldn’t have happened had he not told himself, “I got to give these ladies the love and the respect they deserve.” He made sure of it, too.

Charles Barkley’s family supported him

Barkley disclosed he hardly saw his father, Frank, throughout his youth. His stepfather provided stability until he died in a fatal accident. It fell on his mother, Charcey Glenn, and grandmother to raise him and his brothers. His grandmother sold alcohol at home and also worked at a meat factory. Chuck also said his mother worked as a maid.

Chuck told Sharpe that he was terrible at sports but he threw himself into it to secure a better shot at college and a future. From the many times he’s spoken about his family before, it can be concluded the whole family chipped in. Everyone pooled their money to get Barkley one pair of shoes per season. Instead of walking to and from games in those shoes, his mother would carry them so he’d wear them only for the duration of the game to make it last.

Obviously, he returned that love and support ten times over. And he speaks from experiences when he advocates for other young athletes to stay on the right track.