Sir Charles Has Some Royal Proclamations

Charles Barkley, who played 15 seasons in the NBA and was an 11-time All-Star, is now an NBA studio commentator for TNT. He also has his own half-hour TNT show, “Listen Up!” Barkley, who lives in the Phoenix area, was in Los Angeles on Thursday to appear on the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” which is taped at the NBC studios in Burbank. After the taping, a reporter rode with Barkley back to his hotel in Beverly Hills. Barkley, as usual, wasn’t shy about expressing his opinions.

Question: Are you picking the Lakers to win it all?

Answer: I was going to pick San Antonio. But I’ve changed my thinking a little. I’m going to pick the winner of the San Antonio-Laker series.

Q: Then you’re assuming the Lakers will get past Minnesota?

A: Yes, I’m assuming that. If they don’t, that will make an easier road for San Antonio.

Q: If the Lakers win it this year, will that made Phil Jackson the greatest coach of all time?

A: I think Phil already is the greatest coach of all time. There’s no doubt players are better and teams are better in the last 15 years than when the Celtics had everybody. Not a knock on Red Auerbach, I just think everything is better now.

Q: Are you glad Michael Jordan has retired from the Washington Wizards?

A: Yes. He did the right thing. Michael is one of my best friends. He had kids nipping at him and reporters following him around and taking cheap shots at him. I didn’t like that. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by coming back. He could have come back on a good team, but he came back and tried to save this franchise. Did it work? No, it didn’t work. But he tried. (He earlier told Leno during the taping, “No one could have ever made that team a playoff contender. The Clippers are better than that team.”)

Q: Do you regret you didn’t come back with Michael, as you originally planned?

A: I regret it tremendously. Just trying to scrimmage, I blew out my knee. But I had made up my mind before then that I couldn’t come back. My body had taken as much as it could take.

Q: Your show, “Listen Up!” has just concluded its first year. What’s your honest assessment?

A: The show was terrific. I would stack our guest list up against anybody’s. The show got better as we went along. The only show we did that didn’t go well was the first one because everybody was nervous.

Q: What’s your objective in doing the show and why did you want to do it?

A: People don’t understand what I’m trying to do. I’m so sick and tired of people in the media telling us that because of the war, sports aren’t important. Fans need sports. We’d have only crime and war to watch on TV if not for sports. All I want to do is make people have fun for another half hour before the game starts. I’m not trying to win an Academy Award or any of that stuff. I want sports to be what it is. Hey, they’re killing each other over in Iraq -- let’s watch a basketball game for two hours. That’s all sports is, that’s what I’ve always thought sports was. I never thought we were the greatest thing in the world or any more important than anybody else. Sports are entertainment, plain and simple.

Q: What do you enjoy most about life?

A: I enjoy making people’s day better. That’s all that life is. This is our world, let’s make it better. Oprah has a great saying: “When did it become a ME world?” I’m also trying to figure out when that happened. Let’s make this world better for everybody. I love it when someone says, “I saw your show and you were making me laugh.” I love that.

Q: Is broadcasting something you want to stick with?

A: I’m in the first year of a new four-year deal with TNT, and I love my job and I love the people I work with. But eventually I’d like to move into a front office and be a general manager.

Q: You’ve said before you wanted to run for governor of Alabama. Are you still interested in politics?

A: The Lord blessed me to help poor people. I’ve given $3 million to schools in my neighborhood (around his hometown of Leeds, Ala.). I gave $1 million to my high school, $1 million to another school and $1 million to my college [Auburn]. I’m going to keep doing that. The Lord didn’t bless me to be rich and famous, he blessed me to help poor people. I don’t have time to put up with the ... in politics. Who’s a Democrat? Who’s a Republican? Who’s liberal? Who’s conservative? Man, can my daughter just go to a school and not get killed? Can these people get a good job? That’s what I’m concerned about. I just wish my daughter could go to a public school. She’s in a private school. Unless you’re a great athlete, and that’s one in a million, your only chance of being successful is academics. I think it sucks that in our country there is such a double standard education-wise. Which part of the city you live in, or something like that, determines if you’ll be successful, and that’s not fair. I just put in 20 new computers in my old school. How can anyone compete in the real world without a computer? If you live out in the country in a town with one stoplight, it’s not fair that those kids don’t have a chance to get out of that environment. This is just common sense stuff.