The Phoenix Suns legend appeared on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast and talked about his experience of working with Nike. Interestingly, he revealed how he had a fallout with Nike executives once.
Charles Barkley once argued with the Nike executives
11x NBA All-Star Charles Barkley is one of the most outspoken media personalities in the world. More often than not, this lands him in a lot of trouble. However, he does not refrain from speaking his mind. It seems that Barkley had this trait during his early days in the league. When the Round Mound of Rebound played for the Philadelphia 76ers, he was signed to Nike. As part of his deal with the company, Barkley had to visit a lot of high schools.
what did barkley say ?
Barkley said, “After a few years I realized, these kids think that they can only be successful through athletics. So, I went to Nike and said, I got this idea, I wanna do this. They are like, ‘Are you f*****g nuts?’ I said, what do you mean? They said you are gonna get crushed. I said, what I’m gonna do is start a debate, what a role model is, it’s gonna work out in the long run.”