Being Charles Barkley Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

Charles Barkley, in his own inimitable way, rejected a fan’s offer not to press charges over a cut lip if the Phoenix Sun star apologized.

“I’d rather go to a Klan meeting with a Malcolm X hat on than apologize,” Barkley said Friday night while dressing for a game against Portland. “I’m not apologizing. And I will give his daughter an autograph if he’s not there. We don’t apologize in Alabama unless we do things wrong.”

Barkley also denied the claim that Edward Durham of Glendale, Ariz., made in a police report--that Barkley hit him in the face, cutting his lip. Barkley said he did not throw a punch.

Durham, 36, a self-professed Barkley fan, said he received the negligible injury in a scuffle early Thursday at Stixx--an upscale Scottsdale bar and pool hall.

“I know he’s a good man inside,” Durham told the Arizona Republic on Thursday. “I don’t think he’s a bad person. But he just has a temper problem, and that temper will get him in trouble someday.

“I couldn’t understand why he just flipped like that.”