Charles Barkley Net Worth, Biography, Career, Family, Height, Weight, Other Facts

Charles Barkley is a well-known and respected American television personality and sports analyst who is revered for his versatility and grounded knowledge of sports. He is also a former NBA superstar who stunned many fans with his skils in his heyday while playing for several big teams such as Houston Rockets, and Phoenix Suns. As a matter of fact, he is renowned as one of the most prominent basketball figures in American history.

The ex-basketball player who is also known by the nicknames; Chuck, Sir Charles, and The Round Mound of Rebound, is also an author of several best-seller books.

Charles Barkley Biography

Charles Barkley was born on the 20th February 1963 in Leeds, Alabama, USA. He was born to a father identified as Frank Barkley and a mother called Charcey Glenn. His full birth name has been revealed to be Charles Wade Barkley and he is an African-American.

He was brought up in Leeds, Alabama, USA, alongside his other two siblings John Glenn Barkley and Darryl Barkley. According to reports, since he was little, Charles had always been passionate about the game of basketball though he was a little overweight as a kid.

Charles had his high school at the Leeds High School and while in high school, despite proving to have flexible basketball skills, he was dumped in the school’s reserve team. This was not unconnected to the fact that he was somewhat obese at the time and was also not within the average height because of his height of 5 ft.10 inches

Eventually, Charles grew taller, surpassing 6 inches after the preceding summer so he became listed into the school team and he displayed an amazing performance during the state high school semi-finals as he registered 26 points. This skills caught the attention of the then assistant coach of Auburn University, Sonny Smith who immediately recommended Charles to the University’s basketball team.

Eventually, Charles was then accepted into the Auburn University where he majored in business management. As expected, he was named into the college basketball team where he played for three seasons for the Varsity team. It was his rare and awesome skills of rebounds, blocking, and dunks despite his short height that earned him the nickname The Round Mound of Rebound.

His Career Accomplishments

After his graduation, Charles Barkley made himself eligible for the NBA draft and was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers. Under the tutelage of Malone, Charles Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for games.

After his debut with the team, in the regular season, Charles averaged 14.0 points with 8.6 rebounds per game which earned a landing place on the All-Rookie Team. During the postseasons, Charles helped, the Sixers to reach the Eastern Conference playoffs but conceded defeat in five matches to the Boston Celtics.

However during the off-seasons, Moses Malone helped Charles with some weight shading workouts and as a result of this, Charles became the top rebounder and the second-highest scorer of the team in his second season where he had an average of 25.0 points with 578 field goal shooting points and 15.8 rebounds per game, yet the Sixers were still eliminated from the Eastern Conference in the semi-finals by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Semifinals.

Charles later became listed in the NBA All-Star game and at the end of his last season with the team in 1992. He had an average of 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game. He wrapped up his encounter with the Philadelphia by becoming the fourth player in team’s history to make a total point of 14,184 and third in scoring average with 23.3 points per game, with 7,079 rebounds.

Prior to his joining the Phoenix Suns, Charles was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers but the 76ers quickly rescinded that decision and finally traded Charles to the Phoenix Suns on the 17th July 1992. As soon as Charles registered his presence with the Phoenix Suns in 1992–93 season, his impact was immediately felt in the team as he made an average of 25.6 points on 520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a great 5.1 assists per game thus, leading the Suns to the NBA best 62–20 record. And due to performance, he won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Charles led Phoenix into their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976 but the team could not pull through as they were eliminated by the Chicago Bulls. However, in the 1993-94 seasons, Charles’ performance was marred by injury but even so, he was still named into the All-Star Game for the eighth time simultaneously, unfortunately, he could not feature in the game this time due to an injury of a torn right quadriceps tendon.

The 1995–96 seasons was his last with Phoenix, but he still earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game he also emerged as the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in his career.

In the end, Phoenix decided to trade Charles to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant, and Chucky Brown. During his first season with the Rockets in the 1996–97 seasons, Charles started off with some controversies in which he got into a fight with Charles Oakley during the October 25, 1996 preseason game. However, he became the team’s second-best scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting.

Eventually, in the 1997–98 season Charles was again hit by injuries yet he still averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game, but the Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were kicked out by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs.

Finally, on the1 9thApril, 2000, Charles played his overall last game in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, and as soon as he scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound he pulled out of the court while he was honored with a standing ovation by his fans.

Houston Rockets was the last team that Charles played with before retiring from the NBA after 16 years of a Hall of Fame and impactful and successful career.

Meanwhile, at the international level, Charles has represented the US being a part of the Dream Team in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games where he brought home two gold medals.

Following his retirement from the NBA, in 2000 Charles became a Television icon. On this premise, the Turner Network Television (TNT) hired him to be an NBA games analyst in the station’s popular sports program titled Inside the NBA.

Subsequently, his accurate and interesting analysis made him very popular to the point that he was able to win three Sports Emmy Awards titles as the Outstanding Studio Analyst.

Also, in 2011 Charles was a studio commentator for the joint coverage of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament that broadcast in a collaboration with Turner Sports and the CBS networks.

Additionally, Charles also appeared as a guest commentator in the NBC’s coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on the 7th January 2012. In the meantime, on May 11, 2017, Charles hosted a six-episode unscripted show with the title The Race Card which was later retitled as the American Race and was premiered on TNT.

Married Life, Wife and Children

The former NBA star and sports analyst has been married to his wife Maureen Blumhardt since in 1989. The lovebirds met at a City Avenue Restaurant in the 80s when Maureen was working as a part-time model with the Bucks County, Pennsylvania in addition to being a legal aide for another organization.

After dating for a while they decided to exchange marital vows. Interestingly, the couple welcomed their first daughter within the very year which they got married.

Away from the basketball courts, Charles is also an author who has written his personal books while he co-authored others. Some of his popular write-ups include I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It which was published in 2002, and after three years he also wrote another book titled Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?

Charles has also featured in some movies such as the Space Jam in 1996. He also briefly made appearances in the TV series Suits, in episode 3 of the fifth season as well as the Modern Family in season eight of the series. He also voices an animation of himself in We Bare Bears. Again recently in 2019, he appeared in The Piña Colada Song episode of The Goldbergs.

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What Is His Net Worth?

Charles Barkley’s long NBA career history has surely been such a rewarding one as he has been able to make some huge fortunes out of it. He has also been able to rake in money with his television contracts. He could be listed among the very rich retired NBA stars. According to different sources, Charles Barkley’s net worth is about $50 million at the moment.

Height, Weight, and Other Body Measurements

The Television icon, Charles Barkley stands at the height of 6 ft. 6 inches (1.98m). He is reported to have the weight of 114Kg. His hair color is black and his eye color is dark brown. He also has an athletic body which is often admired by his audiences and fans.

Complete profile of Charles Barkley