Barkley Has His Say, As Does U.S. Team

With their team leading by 59 points and about a minute to play, most fans would have either pulled out a beach ball, plunged into the wave or simply gone home.

Not at America West Arena. Not Wednesday night where the U.S. Olympic team overwhelmed the Chinese Olympians, 119-58, in a pre-Olympic exhibition game.

With 1:18 to play, the sellout crowd of 19,023 was intensely focused on the court, no longer simply a group of Americans cheering on their national team. They were Phoenix Suns fans, cheering one last time for forward Charles Barkley, expected to be traded sometime after the moratorium on player transactions is lifted this afternoon.

Olympic Coach Lenny Wilkens responded by putting Barkley in for the final minute. Barkley trotted onto the court and embraced Reggie Miller to a standing ovation.

It wasn’t exactly Lou Gehrig tearfully saying goodbye at Yankee Stadium, but it was certainly the emotional high on a night when the U.S. Olympians resorted to bouncing passes off the backboard and practicing reverse dunks to stay interested against a clearly overmatched Chinese squad.

After beating a U.S. college all-star squad by only six points and then the Brazilian team by 41, the Dream Team lived up to its name Wednesday and served notice that everybody else is probably playing for the silver medal at the Olympic Games.

When it was finally, mercifully over, Barkley was again the focal point, blasting the Suns in a press conference.

“The whole scenario has been disrespectful,” Barkley said. “They [the Suns] have been saying things behind my back, but that’s OK because I don’t trust anybody in sports. They can’t shop me around all summer and expect me to come back and give 110%. That’s not fair to me as a person. That’s not fair to me as an athlete. . . . They are trying to shop me around to make up for their mistakes. They are doing their stuff behind closed doors. They are not going to tell me the truth. But I talk to other teams. They could have handled the whole thing differently. They have made me a laughingstock.

“I know I’m a hell of a basketball player and I know I can help some teams. I don’t think I can be the best player on the team anymore and win a championship. Hopefully it will work out good for me. And I want the Suns to be successful. The fans here deserve a winner.”

So there is no way Barkley will return?

“If they walked in now and said, ‘Hey, we were a bunch of idiots. We are sorry for trading all of your help away. We apologize for shopping you around like a piece of meat. Will you finish your career here in Phoenix?’ I would say, I would love to.”

Don’t hold your breath. Suns officials maintained their silence. But they are known to be working on several deals, the most likely a three-way trade with the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets that would put Barkley in Houston.

When a foreign reporter attempted to ask a question during Barkley’s tirade, he snapped back, “Let me finish. You’re not even from this country. Chill.”

That’s Charles. Even on a night when he’s the good guy, he can’t resist being the bad guy.

Olympic Notes

Reggie Miller (16 points) and Grant Hill (14) led the scoring. . . . The most impressive member of the Chinese team was Wang Zhizhi. The 7-foot-1 center, youngest player on the team at 18, had 12 points and seven rebounds.