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Interview With Charles Barkley
Aired August 12, 2003 - 15:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The facts of the case remain murky, but there's hardly any doubt that Kobe Bryant has trouble on his hands, and so may the NBA. Just for a moment, let's forget Bryant's basketball skills. Before he was charged with sexual assault his off- court persona made him a sizable asset to a league with an image problem. As a new season nears, the talk of the NBA is, what's up with Kobe?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACY MCGRADY, ORLANDO MAGIC: You guys sit here and say, Oh, he's a perfect guy. But you all don't really know Kobe. You know what I'm saying? You all don't know what type of guy he is. I mean he is a great guy, but you guys don't know that. I know that because I am his friend.
KARL MALONE, LOS ANGELES LAKER: He's a teammate and we'll support him.
ALLEN IVERSON, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: My heart goes out to him and his family and the accused -- the lady's victim family and her because I know all of them are going through a tough time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And joining us now with his take, a man never shy of expressing his opinion, former player, now TNT analyst Charles Barkley. He's in Phoenix. Hi, Charles.
CHARLES BARKLEY, TNT ANALYST: Hello. How you doing?
PHILLIPS: Pretty good.
Hey, first of all, general question, your take on this case. What are you thinking?
BARKLEY: I don't know anything. First of all nobody knows anything that happened except Kobe and the young lady because we haven't seen any evidence. The only thing we know is that Kobe has got a great back of his head. We have to sit there and watch that on television on every station last week like a bunch of idiots. We know what the back of his head looks like, we know no evidence. And it's just a circus.
PHILLIPS: All right, let me try to get inside of your head for a moment, OK? I'm reading through a number of quotes that came out in the past number of weeks, this book that was written by a veteran journalist, Elizabeth Kaye. And she talks about this motto that summarizes the NBA and that is "Play ball, get laid, sleep in."
Then I find another quote from an ex-wife of an NBA player, "I don't think there's a single faithful man in the NBA; and if he's out there, then his wife has a very short leash on him." That's Tammy Anderson.
Talk to me about this life on the road. Does it open up -- is it an open invitation to fool around?
BARKLEY: Well, you know, first of all, I thought ESPN did a really poor job, first of all, getting all them sisters on there talking about how unfaithful their husbands were.
The media, I think they -- you know when Rudolph Giuliani had a wife and a girlfriend nobody said, Well, all these mayors are out there having these extracurricular activities. And when Katherine Hepburn, they interrupted my golf to tell me what an icon she was. They didn't say that she had been dating a married man for 20-some years.
So I think it's a little bit unfair for them to try to portray athletes. Hey, I know a lot of doctors and lawyers and CNN people who have sex and who have had affairs. So to throw it at the feet of NBA players is a little bit unfair.
PHILLIPS: Charles, I hope I'm not in that mix.
BARKLEY: I don't know you that well.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Oh, my goodness. You're going to have to give me the scoop off the record. I don't want to slam anybody here on CNN.
BARKLEY: Hey, I won't slam anybody either because what people do in their own private business is their own thing. Hey, I got nothing against Mayor Giuliani, I got nothing against Katharine Hepburn. What people do in their private business, that's why they call it private business.
PHILLIPS: Well unfortunately this hasn't become -- what he did has become public business now. Unfortunately we all are hearing about this and it's having to be dealt with in the public eye.
But you mention all these people. You're right. Politicians, movie stars, athletes. I mean there's a thing called groupies, there's a thing called excess. You know are basketball players, our athletes schooled on the whole groupie phenomenon? Are you told when you come to the NBA, hey, you got a lot of money, you're good looking, you're a great athlete. Look out because these people are going to be coming after you.
BARKLEY: Well first of all, all NBA players aren't great looking, No. 1. But I think it's fair, anybody who has excess money and fame -- and that's what it really comes down to. If you're a good-looking person, you don't even have to be in the lime light. If you're a good-looking guy, you get women, that goes with it. If you've got a lot of money, you get women.
It has nothing to do whether you're a professional athlete or somebody famous. If you've got money or you're good looking, you can have -- do whatever you want to do, basically.
PHILLIPS: So how do you fight the temptation especially when you're married and have children?
BARKLEY: Well that's up to everybody's own individual preference. I mean, like I say, hey, only God can cast stones. I basically think that, hey, God is great and the rest of us kind of bring a lot of B.S. to the table -- no disrespect to you.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Charles.
Hey, Mark Cuban, you know, owner of the Spurs came out and said, Hey this whole deal was great for the business of NBA. You know, you listen to the comment like that, Yes, Kobe jerseys are selling like crazy, so a lot of Kobe paraphernalia is selling like crazy. Is this kind of sad, I mean morally sad?
BARKLEY: Well America's a morally sad place, to be honest with you. Man, so many people walking around -- and I think Mark's thing was taken way out of context, No. 1.
There are so many famous people in this country who have done nothing but been a bad person or did stuff illegal and they're famous. So to -- that's just the way it is. People like Mark are right, people like train wrecks.
But there are so many people in this country and this world who have done nothing to be famous who make a lot of money. And, that's just the way the system works. You can do stuff illegal and make a lot of money.
PHILLIPS: The Church of Charles Barkley. He has spoken. Thank you for spending some time with us today, Charles.
BARKLEY: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 12, 2003 - 15:39 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The facts of the case remain murky, but there's hardly any doubt that Kobe Bryant has trouble on his hands, and so may the NBA. Just for a moment, let's forget Bryant's basketball skills. Before he was charged with sexual assault his off- court persona made him a sizable asset to a league with an image problem. As a new season nears, the talk of the NBA is, what's up with Kobe?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACY MCGRADY, ORLANDO MAGIC: You guys sit here and say, Oh, he's a perfect guy. But you all don't really know Kobe. You know what I'm saying? You all don't know what type of guy he is. I mean he is a great guy, but you guys don't know that. I know that because I am his friend.
KARL MALONE, LOS ANGELES LAKER: He's a teammate and we'll support him.
ALLEN IVERSON, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS: My heart goes out to him and his family and the accused -- the lady's victim family and her because I know all of them are going through a tough time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And joining us now with his take, a man never shy of expressing his opinion, former player, now TNT analyst Charles Barkley. He's in Phoenix. Hi, Charles.
CHARLES BARKLEY, TNT ANALYST: Hello. How you doing?
PHILLIPS: Pretty good.
Hey, first of all, general question, your take on this case. What are you thinking?
BARKLEY: I don't know anything. First of all nobody knows anything that happened except Kobe and the young lady because we haven't seen any evidence. The only thing we know is that Kobe has got a great back of his head. We have to sit there and watch that on television on every station last week like a bunch of idiots. We know what the back of his head looks like, we know no evidence. And it's just a circus.
PHILLIPS: All right, let me try to get inside of your head for a moment, OK? I'm reading through a number of quotes that came out in the past number of weeks, this book that was written by a veteran journalist, Elizabeth Kaye. And she talks about this motto that summarizes the NBA and that is "Play ball, get laid, sleep in."
Then I find another quote from an ex-wife of an NBA player, "I don't think there's a single faithful man in the NBA; and if he's out there, then his wife has a very short leash on him." That's Tammy Anderson.
Talk to me about this life on the road. Does it open up -- is it an open invitation to fool around?
BARKLEY: Well, you know, first of all, I thought ESPN did a really poor job, first of all, getting all them sisters on there talking about how unfaithful their husbands were.
The media, I think they -- you know when Rudolph Giuliani had a wife and a girlfriend nobody said, Well, all these mayors are out there having these extracurricular activities. And when Katherine Hepburn, they interrupted my golf to tell me what an icon she was. They didn't say that she had been dating a married man for 20-some years.
So I think it's a little bit unfair for them to try to portray athletes. Hey, I know a lot of doctors and lawyers and CNN people who have sex and who have had affairs. So to throw it at the feet of NBA players is a little bit unfair.
PHILLIPS: Charles, I hope I'm not in that mix.
BARKLEY: I don't know you that well.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Oh, my goodness. You're going to have to give me the scoop off the record. I don't want to slam anybody here on CNN.
BARKLEY: Hey, I won't slam anybody either because what people do in their own private business is their own thing. Hey, I got nothing against Mayor Giuliani, I got nothing against Katharine Hepburn. What people do in their private business, that's why they call it private business.
PHILLIPS: Well unfortunately this hasn't become -- what he did has become public business now. Unfortunately we all are hearing about this and it's having to be dealt with in the public eye.
But you mention all these people. You're right. Politicians, movie stars, athletes. I mean there's a thing called groupies, there's a thing called excess. You know are basketball players, our athletes schooled on the whole groupie phenomenon? Are you told when you come to the NBA, hey, you got a lot of money, you're good looking, you're a great athlete. Look out because these people are going to be coming after you.
BARKLEY: Well first of all, all NBA players aren't great looking, No. 1. But I think it's fair, anybody who has excess money and fame -- and that's what it really comes down to. If you're a good-looking person, you don't even have to be in the lime light. If you're a good-looking guy, you get women, that goes with it. If you've got a lot of money, you get women.
It has nothing to do whether you're a professional athlete or somebody famous. If you've got money or you're good looking, you can have -- do whatever you want to do, basically.
PHILLIPS: So how do you fight the temptation especially when you're married and have children?
BARKLEY: Well that's up to everybody's own individual preference. I mean, like I say, hey, only God can cast stones. I basically think that, hey, God is great and the rest of us kind of bring a lot of B.S. to the table -- no disrespect to you.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Charles.
Hey, Mark Cuban, you know, owner of the Spurs came out and said, Hey this whole deal was great for the business of NBA. You know, you listen to the comment like that, Yes, Kobe jerseys are selling like crazy, so a lot of Kobe paraphernalia is selling like crazy. Is this kind of sad, I mean morally sad?
BARKLEY: Well America's a morally sad place, to be honest with you. Man, so many people walking around -- and I think Mark's thing was taken way out of context, No. 1.
There are so many famous people in this country who have done nothing but been a bad person or did stuff illegal and they're famous. So to -- that's just the way it is. People like Mark are right, people like train wrecks.
But there are so many people in this country and this world who have done nothing to be famous who make a lot of money. And, that's just the way the system works. You can do stuff illegal and make a lot of money.
PHILLIPS: The Church of Charles Barkley. He has spoken. Thank you for spending some time with us today, Charles.
BARKLEY: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
