Charles Barkley was selected fifth overall in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers, despite Barkley’s best efforts to get them to pass on them.
Barkley ended up playing four years for the Sixers, making a pair of All-Star teams while averaging over 23 points and 11 boards per game before being dealt to the Phoenix Suns. While things worked out eventually and Barkley didn’t have any animosity towards the city of Philadelphia, he was trying to avoid being the casualty of a cap crunch in Philly.
The Hall of Famer recently joined The Russillo Show podcast on ESPN to discuss all manner of things, including why he’d rather play with Steph Curry than Kevin Durant, but he told the story of how because the Sixers were hard-capped that year and could only offer him a 1-year, $75,000 deal he tried to keep them from drafting him.
Barkley’s story is hilarious, as he details a “48-hour bender” that involved multiple pancake binges at Denny’s, all-you-can-eat buffets and steakhouses that saw him gain 20 pounds to defy their request for him to lose weight ahead of the draft.
I gotta tell you my funniest story. So the Sixers want to draft me, but they’re worried about my weight. They fly me up about a month before the draft. The owner of the Sixers named Harold Katz, this a true story, he says Charles, everybody in our front office wants to draft you but they’re concerned about your weight. I said, you don’t have to worry about my weight. I’m in good shape, I could probably get in better shape, blah blah blah. He says, I’m gonna put you on the test. He says get on the scale. I weighed 298. He says, it’s a month before the draft, I want you to get to 285.
So, I go down to Texas with my agent, who’s a [bleep] stole all my money. I don’t want to mention his name. Lance Lesnick is his name. We go down to Texas. I workout like a crazy man for a month and then two days before I got a stop in Philly on my way to New York for the Draft. At this point, I weigh about 282. My agent says, you know now the way the salary cap work you can only get a 1-year deal worth $75,000 because the Sixers are over the salary cap. Because back then they had a hard salary cap. So I was like, dude, I didn’t leave college for $75,000. He says, well these are the rules, you gotta hope the Sixers don’t draft you. I said what can I do to make the Sixers not draft me? He says, you weigh 282, he told you when you were up there to get to 285, you weigh 282 now. I said I don’t want the Sixers to draft me.
So we went on a 48-hour bender to Denny’s. We went to Denny’s for two days and I fit as many pancakes as I could in my mouth for breakfast. For lunch, we went to a cafeteria buffet. For dinner we went to a big steakhouse. We did that for 48 hours straight. So, we fly to Philly. I get on the scale and I weigh 302. And the owner of the Sixers calls me every name in the book. And I’m trying to kinda laugh on the inside, like, dude then don’t draft me. But I was trying to be professional. When they called with the fifth pick in the draft the 76ers take Charles Barkley, I thought I was gonna die. I thought I was in trouble. I was like, holy crap. I left college for $75,000.
It’s a phenomenal story. I would pay good money for there to have been a documentary crew with Chuck when he went on this binge to see what kind of legendary eating performance he put on at Denny’s and the buffet. Barkley goes on to explain how Moses Malone was the one that helped him get in shape, which is why he credits Moses for being critical to launching his Hall of Fame career.
So they draft me and I got in a little bit of shape before I got back to about 295, so this is why Moses is the most important person in my basketball career. I’m not playing much early in my NBA career because I wasn’t in good enough shape to play in the NBA. I could get away with playing at 300 pounds in college, but you not going to get to play in the NBA.
…
So one night I talked to Moses after practice and asked if I could come up, we actually lived in the same building. I still call him dad to this day, god rest his soul. I said dad can I come see you tonight. I said, Big Mo why am I not getting to play. He said, young fella you fat and you lazy. … In fairness you’re only lazy cause you’re fat. He says, Charles, you can’t play NBA basketball at 295 pounds. He says, Charles you got so much talent but you never gonna get it until you loose weight. … He said meet me in the gym in the morning and this guy met me every morning. … I get to 285, things are starting to get better. I get to 275, now I’m starting to play. Then I get to 265, now I’m really starting to play a little bit. I get to 255, now I’m getting to start. This guy is one of the greatest players ever and he’s meeting me every day, working on me.
Barkley played the remainder of his career around that 255 pound weight and became one of the all-time great power forwards in the league. Because Malone was the one that turned him around and gave him the motivation and support he needed to drop that weight, Barkley may be lucky to have still been taken by the Sixers rather than see them pass over him and go to a team that could’ve given him more money.
Under the current salary cap rules in the NBA this would never happen, but the 80s were a wild time and if you ever need to put on 20 pounds in a couple of days, Denny’s is your spot.
