Despite the fact that Charles Barkley attended Auburn back in the day, the Inside the NBA host has developed an affection for Alabama head football coach Nick Saban. Now, thanks to AL.com, the two were able to sit down and have a conversation about topics ranging from Barkley’s golf game to Saban’s biggest regrets over the years.
Regarding Barkley’s infamous inability to swing a club correctly, the former NBA All-Star told Saban that there was only two good things about getting out onto the course.
I don’t like talking about golf, golf is not my favorite. The only thing good about golf is drinking and smoking.
After Saban said he still believed Chuck could work out his hitch, Barkley offered him a grand prize if he figured out the solution.
You know I think you’re an amazing coach. If you could fix my golf game, I’d put a statue of you at my house.
The crux of the interview though was the two talking about Saban and his disciplining methods. Barkley told the Bama head coach that he appreciated the fact that he gave young black men second chances after they made mistakes instead of suspending them or kicking them off the team.
The one thing I want to say to you as a black man. I really respect when you give other young black men an opportunity when they’ve screwed up. Because I always tell people, everyone is an idiot when they’re 18. Everyone is going to make mistakes. But as a black man, I just want to say thank you for giving these young black guys an opportunity. I know you’ve taken some heat and I thought it was unfair, because we don’t just need to throw kids away when they do something stupid.
As a response, Saban said that his goal as a coach is not to just blindly discipline a player when they mess up, but instead to systemically try to change their attitude and make them a better person.
As a coach, when it comes to football players we’re trying to change their behavior and make them better. As people, we’re trying to change their behavior and make them better. And I think everybody can understand if they ever have children of their own, how your children sometimes disappoint you. They do things that you wish they didn’t do and they embarrass you, but we don’t throw them out of the house, we try to come up with ways that we can change their behavior, so that’s where I always focus on on the guys.
Now, to some, that might just sound like a football coach who’s primary goal is winning football games and championships coming up with a reason to not suspend his top players which would decrease his likelihood of staying at the top of the polls. Saban is aware of that criticism, and he had a response for it.
What people in the media sometimes think is ‘You just don’t want to suspend him because he’s a good player.’ Well, that’s not true, because I do that with every player on our team. And sometimes when guys do things and it happens over and over and over, maybe you have to take playing away from him because that’s something meaningful to them and that’s the only thing that will change their behavior, but I don’t think that’s always the first step and most of our players respond very well to it and appreciate it.
The whole thing is worth a listen, and Saban even revealed at the end that he runs his own pick-up basketball league and he makes Alabama head basketball coach Avery Johnson (who just so happens to be a former NBA point guard) move off the ball so he can stay at his natural position as the lead guard on his team. I guess when you have won five national championships, it must be pretty easy to get your way.
(Via AL.com)
