The Future Is Now for Barkley, 104-94 : Pro basketball: After Rockets eliminate Suns, he says he will retire if doctors say he needs major back surgery to keep playing.

Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns answered the question before it was asked.

“I know the next question is, ‘Was this my last game?’ I honestly can say I don’t know,” Barkley said Saturday after the Houston Rockets scored a 104-94 victory in the seventh game of the NBA Western Conference semifinals before a sellout crowd of 16,611 at the Summit.

The Rockets, who advanced to the Western Conference finals for the third time in franchise history, will face the Utah Jazz in a best-of-seven series beginning here Monday night.

But the sun has set on Barkley’s agonizing season, and perhaps on his 10-year NBA career.

“I’m relieved that this year is over because I don’t want to play in the pain I played in this year,” said Barkley, plagued by a back injury throughout the season.

Barkley said he plans to meet with Sun physician Richard Emerson and two back specialists and will retire if they recommend major back surgery.

“If the doctor can make me feel better, then I’m going to play again . . . and if he can’t--hey it’s been a great ride,” Barkley said. “It’s that simple. I’d love to win a world championship, but I feel that I’ve accomplished everything I set out to do as a basketball player.

“I’m not trying to make people wonder all summer what I’m going to do. If I can play without being in pain, I’ll be back. I read somewhere where somebody wrote that I was doing this to get my contract redone or to get attention. But I honestly don’t know if I’m going to play again.

“I don’t think any human should have to take injections in his back in order to play. I don’t want to go through this for 82 games again. That’s not the way it’s going to be.”

Barkley said he talked to former Boston Celtic star Larry Bird, whose career was cut short by a back injury.

“Larry told me that it was going to get worse before it got better,” Barkley said. “I’m never going to have major back surgery. If they can do something with laser (surgery), then that’s great. But if my option is to have major back surgery, then I’m done.”

Barkley was a shell of himself as the defending Western Conference champions became the second team in NBA history to lose a seven-game series after winning the first two games on the road.

Although he took a pain-killing injection before the game and two at halftime after he took a second-quarter charge from rookie guard Sam Cassell that knocked him to the court, Barkley maintained that he was ineffective.

Barkley, who grimaced in pain as he ran the court, made nine of 19 shots and scored 24 points and grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds.

“I was just in the way,” Barkley said. “I couldn’t run and I couldn’t jump. A couple of times I wanted to make something happen, but I just couldn’t do it physically.”

Barkley was ejected from the game with 7.4 seconds remaining after he intentionally shoved center Hakeem Olajuwon to the court as Olajuwon was going in for a layup.

Rocket guard Vernon Maxwell, who was also ejected, ran over to retaliate and Barkley shoved him away before they were separated by Sun forward A.C. Green.

Barkley said he shoved Olajuwon, who had 37 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots, because he felt the Rockets didn’t need to score any more points.

“They shouldn’t have tried to score again, so I knocked Hakeem down and then Vernon ran up in my face and I pushed him,” Barkley said. “You don’t celebrate like that when the game is over.”

Said Olajuwon: “I think he was just frustrated. I don’t have anything negative to say about Barkley.

“Charles is the ambassador of the league. I’d hate to see him retire. He’s like Michael Jordan.”

Although Olajuwon, who probably will succeed Barkley as the NBA’s most valuable player, averaged 28.7 points, 13.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.9 blocked shots in the seven-game series, Cassell and Maxwell kept the Rockets from crashing.

Cassell scored 22 points, the most by a Rocket rookie in a playoff game since Olajuwon scored 32 against Utah in a 1985 first-round game.

Maxwell did a good job of guarding Dan Majerle, who averaged only nine points in the series.

* JAZZ ADVANCES: Karl Malone scored 31 points as Utah eliminated the Denver Nuggets, 91-81, in seventh game. C9