I completely disagree with your assessment. The current trend in the NBA is all about quickness and athleticism and has totally moved away from size. Ike Diogu measured out as a 6'6" 1/2 inch PF and went #9 in the draft. A 5'8" guard was drafted #21 overall. Chris Paul measured out a shade under 6' and he went #4. How many teams actually start a 7-footer at center? The majority of the teams are starting a PF in the center spot. The NBA is a copycat league and teams are trying to emulate what Phoenix had success with. They were playing a PF at center, a SF at PF and a 2 guard at SF. Ben Wallace and Amare Stoudamire are the 2nd and 3rd team All-NBA centers. If all teams cared about were size, then neither of those guys would be playing center. If a guy like Diogu could get drafted at #9, why in the world would Barkley have slipped in the draft? Barkley was much stronger, quicker, more aggressive, more explosive, better rebounder, passer and scorer than Diogu. If anything, Barkley's size worked against him more in '84 than it would today. Remember, Bob Knight cut Barkley from the '84 Olympic team, because he thought he was overweight. That was despite the fact that Barkley was the leading scorer and rebounder for Olympic team (which included Michael Jordan).
In the worst possible case imaginable, Barkley would have gone #19, to the Memphis Grizzlies. No way Jerry West lets him go by although I really can't imagine him not being a top ten pick. Robert Traylor, Caron Butler, Chris Kaman, DeSagana Diop, Josh Childress, Lorenzen Wright, Samaki Walker, Joel Przybilla were all top ten picks.
He also had similar blocks on David Robinson and yes, Hakeem olajuwon, as well right at the rim. Barkley in his prime would crush any of the PF's in today's diluted game, soft duncan inlcuded
Charles Barkley - truly one of the all-time greats. Someone said it perfectly about him - he was the type of player you hated UNLESS he was on your team. I was so fortunate to be a Rocket fan when he came to us and that was during the tail end of his career. I couldn't even imagine what it would have been like to be rooting for a team with him when he was in his 20's. Three of the saddest things that I will always remember in the 20+ years of watching sports involved Barkley: 1) When he tore his quadriceps or hamstring or whatever it was in his final season - he was off to such a good start for a guy his age and for being as out of shape as he was. 2) In the '98 playoffs, 1st round (his 2nd year with us), he was absolutely owning the Jazzholes left and right and then hurt his triceps. I remember vividly seeing a picture of Keith Jones or someone else touching his triceps and Barkely wincing in pain. I knew right then that any chance we had at an upset was over and sure enough we played game 5 (back when the 1st round was the best 3 out of 5) without him and got spanked. 3) But unquestionably the #1 sad Barkley moment ever and right up there for me, personally, was seeing Barkley holding back tears in the hallway of the Compaq Center after that #$%@! Stockton hit the 3 (only after getting a huge bearhug on Drexler from that infernal redneck ******* Karla Malone) in the '97 Western Conference Finals. I think Charles knew that was going to be the last time he would get that good of a chance of winning an NBA title. With the exception of Tim Wakefield giving up the game-winning and series-winning homer to that little **** Aaron Boone in the 2003 ALCS, I have never felt and ached so bad for one individual in sports like I did for the Chuckwagon that night. Thinking about that brings sadness in my heart and a tear to my eye.
