Man those jerseys always made Charles look obese. I know he wasnt in the greatest shape but wasnt as fat as how the jersey makes him look.
That was Barkley's first game as a Rocket. setup for v Phoenix. Have we ever done a poll of best first game, Barkley's v Harden's?
I loved Barkley on our team. That 97 squad was awesome and only Karl Malone's cheating ass kept us out of the finals.
Those jerseys were terrible even bad for the 90s I think we ranked for the worst looking jerseys of all time chuck was the only Rocket to call them trash maybe that’s why Les didn’t pay him
Pippen was the worst Rocket of all time every real rockets fan knows that @Zboy Chuck led us to the western conference finals Which the next time that happened was harden
via Cracked's News Stories That Got Eclipsed Right Now https://www.cracked.com/pictofacts-1638-news-stories-that-got-eclipsed-by-all-important-stuff/
The thing about this clip is that it's much more than just Charles grabbing rebounds. He's out there doing everything. He got a couple of solid blocks, had a couple of nice assists, made 10/14 free throws, dribbled a fast break down the court, and he even took a three at the end of a quarter. He made several midrange shots, dunked the ball, and even was going to be on the receiving end of a failed alley oop that didn't get to him. He played 45 minutes. Charles was more than just a physically well-rounded player. Here's the box score: https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199611020PHO.html Regarding his 33 rebounds in that game (where he eclipsed his previous high mark by 5, geez): that doesn't seem unattainable in today's league. He only has one rebound where he actually rips and fights the ball out of the opponents hands which might not fly into today's soft league. But the other 32 are the result of good positioning, boxing out, and effort. Many of them are pulled down with authority, though, even if no one's challenging him. It's just Barkley saying to everyone "This is my ball. GTFO." There are just no Barkleys to do it today. Again, much like Hakeem blocking the hell out of everything instead of taking charges, this is just so much more enjoyable to watch than the middling efforts we see from players in these areas today. Westbrook is a nice throwback, though. Overlap Westbrook and PJ in the Venn diagram, and you get kind of get Barkley back.
That was an incredible performance by Charles. I don't understand the BS about "hating" the guy. Hate him for his play when he was with a different team, hate him for being a ludicrous NBA media talking head, but to hate him for that performance in his 1st game with the Rockets? That's absurdity writ large. As large as Charles is now.
I love Barkley sure he says some stupid stuff once in a while (okay quite often) but goddamnit he’s right a lot of the time also. His shoes were also LEGENDARY. Didn’t even know what deodorant was back then nor did I need it but I still wanted it. Only people that hate him are snowflakes that get easily triggered.
Fun facts: Steve Nash got his first NBA point and assist in that game Scott Foster reffed the game, and Hakeem didn’t shoot one FT, and got called for traveling and goaltending in a span of 8 seconds. Who wants to bet Foster called him for traveling on a Dreamshake move, and Hakeem got pissed so goaltended the next shot in Ewing-esque spite Gary Payton and Doug Christie got DNPs by Rudy. The Nash Fact is pretty cool, but I think that last bullet point is a database glitch
