Barkley Gives Up Golf for Gold

Charles Barkley has an opinion about everything, so watch out, Olympics.

Barkley’s idea of a summer game is golf. But because this is the first year NBA players are eligible for the Summer Games, Barkley will spend the next six weeks with perhaps the best basketball team ever assembled.

“I’m proud to be from the USA and all that other stuff, but I just want to play basketball, get this thing done and win the gold medal,” Barkley said Tuesday after the U.S. Olympic team’s second day of practice at UC San Diego.

Get the idea that Barkley isn’t exactly bowled over by Olympic spirit?

“I don’t worry about something like that,” he said. “Everybody’s making a big deal. I’m here for one reason, to play basketball with my good, good friends. I mean, we’ve got more important, significant things in this country we need to address other than playing basketball.”

Barkley’s friends are a rather exclusive lot. His teammates are Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Karl Malone, John Stockton, David Robinson and Clyde Drexler.

The only collegian on the team, Duke’s Christian Laettner, the college player of the year, is expected to be taken by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the third pick in today’s NBA Draft.

Barkley was cut during the Olympic Trials in 1984, the year Jordan, Ewing and Mullin led the United States to the gold medal.

Others might have been crushed. Not Barkley.

“I didn’t want to make it in ‘84,” he said. “I had just left my college (Auburn), decided to go hardship. I did everything at the Olympic Trials I wanted to do. I played my way into the top five of the draft, and I got to enjoy my summer.

“I’ve done really well in the last eight years in the NBA, so that’s a compliment,” he said about getting picked for this year’s Olympic squad. “This is fine to get to hang out with these guys every day, play with them, play golf with them every day, play cards with them every day.”

During a normal summer, “I play golf twice a day, that’s it,” Barkley said. “The last five summers, I have not touched a basketball. I was really tired and fatigued and got really sick (Monday) because it was the first time I touched a basketball since the season ended.”

That would have been April 18, when the Philadelphia 76ers ended their season at 35-47 and out of the playoffs.

“I’m just concentrating on getting in shape,” Barkley said. “I didn’t almost pass out today, so I must be getting in better shape.”

“I think Charles takes better care of himself,” Coach Chuck Daly said with a wink. “He came in (Monday) a little sluggish. Today I thought he played extremely well. He’s got great pride and he’s competitive. I was very pleased with the way he’s been playing.”

The U.S. team is practicing for the 10-team Tournament of the Americas beginning Saturday in Portland. The United States, favored to win the gold medal, needs to finish among the top four to advance to Barcelona. Its first opponent will be Cuba on Sunday.

“Yeah, that’s where Fidel Castro’s from, isn’t it?” Barkley said. “That’s all I know about Cuba.”

Daly said Tuesday’s practice was much like Monday’s.

“We’re still discarding the ball a lot, but that’s to be expected when you haven’t had people together for any length of time. But the intensity was there, and the effort and the mind aspect.”

The team worked on its man-to-man defense Monday and Tuesday, and will begin working on zone defense on Wednesday, Daly said.

“That’ll be kind of interesting, because these guys basically haven’t played against zones in years,” he said.