NONFICTION - March 1, 1992

OUTRAGEOUS! by Charles Barkley and Roy S. Johnson (Simon & Schuster: $20; 317 pp.) Now this would have been the libel case of all time--eight-year Philadelphia 76er veteran Charles Barkley suing himself for libel. The wildly outspoken forward complained that he had been misquoted in this, his first book, which theoretically meant that his lawyer could have interrogated him about whether he knew he was quoting himself incorrectly, and whether malice aforethought existed.

Barkley could have been the star of another kind of court, except that he then retracted his complaint and decided to live with the misquote. He seems, from this smartly written autobiography, to live on the run like that, his words always about a half-mile ahead of him. And, like anyone who loves the sound of his own voice, Barkley will pontificate on just about any subject, as long as it has a peripheral connection to hoops--whether it be the need for drug-testing, the possibility that a player might beat up his wife, a call for better behavior from players on the road (complemented by a short insert about Magic Johnson’s sobering news). When words fail, he resorts to pantomime, like the punch he aimed at Bill Laimbeer. The question of whether Barkley makes a suitable role model (teaching children to be loudmouthed, disrespectful, self-absorbed and stubborn) is, he insists, beside the point. There is no reason to glorify athletes, though Barkley is perfectly happy to bask in the adoration, as long as it’s being offered. To quote him: “Hell, I know drug dealers who can dunk. Can drug dealers be role models too?”