Don't know if this has been posted or not, but there are some more quotes from Barkley's SI article, and some interesting jabs at Chuck....... http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news/ap/20020307/ap-jimlitke.html While wearing a golf shoe By JIM LITKE AP Sports Writer March 7, 2002 Charles Barkley might have slimmed down, but don't fret. His mouth is still big enough to accommodate his foot. In this case, while wearing a golf shoe. Barkley turns up on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week in what is decidedly a non-golfing outfit. He's naked, in fact, except for a set of broken slave shackles, a pair of gauzy pajama bottoms, a logo, some headlines and this quote: ``Every black kid thinks the only way he can be successful is through athletics. That is a terrible thing.'' In the article, he gives his take on a number of issues, including a black kid named Tiger Woods who, Barkley insists, would be even more successful if those fuddy-duddies down at the Augusta National Golf Club weren't tricking up their course just to stop him. ``Jack Nicklaus won the Masters six damn times, and he was hitting it past everybody else, and they never made a change,'' Barkley said. ``What they're doing to Tiger is blatant racism.'' Anybody who's ever seen Barkley swing a driver knows he shouldn't be going there. First, he knows precious little about golf. Second, while Barkley knows plenty about racism, he's at least 20 years behind on his Augusta National history. Now, the green jackets who ran the place back then practiced blatant racism. But the guys who run it now can't afford to. By adding 300 yards to Augusta National all they hoped to do was keep their course from falling hopelessly out of date. Woods said as much after a conversation with club chairman Hootie Johnson. ``I spoke to Hootie about the changes, and the changes are not for me,'' he said. ``They're for the kids that are coming up in the future. I'm not that long, anymore. I kind of dink it around. There are a lot of kids out there now in college golf and high school golf that hit the ball farther than I do. They're getting bigger and stronger, and the new technology is helping out. ``I guess they went ahead and took a step to prevent players in the future from shooting low scores.'' It really is that simple. At the peak of his powers, Woods has turned venerable courses like Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Augusta into pitch-and-putt layouts. That's not what was keeping Hootie up nights. Like everybody else who follows golf (except Barkley, apparently) Johnson understands there is no such thing as Tiger-proofing a golf course. There isn't enough time or money in the world for that. Instead, what worries Johnson is that some of the guys coming out of the B-flight -- after copying Woods' training and nutrition regimens, adding swing gurus and sports psychologists to their speed dials, and arming themselves with the latest technology -- might be able to do the same to Augusta National, too, and soon. Why this line of thinking baffled Barkley so is anyone's guess, but here's one of them: Once you've seen the Charles-in-chains cover photo, it's hard not to think of the article in terms of a theme. If Barkley was trying to make a serious statement about racism, the picture barely helped his cause and the wrongheaded jibe thrown Augusta National's way certainly hurt it. Charles said he raised the issue because, ``Tiger doesn't like to speak out,'' and challenged his peers to join him. ``Michael (Jordan) could do it and Tiger could do it, but you have to be willing to be ridiculed,'' he said. ``I'm willing to be ridiculed.'' Most times, when somebody in the public eye would rather be outrageous than right, the solution is easy enough. Turn the page, change the channel, maybe wonder whether the episode was blown out of proportion or taken out of context. In this instance, none of those will do. Barkley, after all, is usually worth tuning in, even if he's the same guy who swore for years he was misquoted in his autobiography -- and will probably do so again when his next book, tentatively titled ``I Might Be Wrong, But I Doubt It,'' hits the bookstores. But he still has plenty to learn about credibility. Barkley started this weight-loss program to get into playing shape so he could make a comeback alongside Jordan, found he couldn't push back far enough from the training table, then wound up urging Jordan to give it up. All the workouts might have done wonders for Barkley's physique. But it'shis brain that could use some exercise right about now. Jim Litke is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Writehim at jlitke(at)ap.org
Tiger's game has hit a little dropoff. I don't know that much about golf, so even though I respect Chuck for his push for black power and all that ****, I think he may be going a little overboard in this article. America is trying to unite, not divide, and I think Chuck does nothing to bring blacks and whites together. Whatever. Maybe I'm just still a little bitter because my favorite Rocket Robert Horry was traded for him.
