["Basketball owes nothing, my whole life is owed to basketball."
"I am 37 years old, and my wealth has exceeded my wildest dreams."
"When I entered the League in 1984, I just wanted to make a million dollars for my grandmother, work here for ten years and then retire, and find a high school as a basketball coach."
"Now, I have material wealth, many people know , I have been to many places around the world, and all of this is thanks to basketball."
"Now that I have a championship trophy, I think I can die without regrets."
On that night of celebration after Ga 5 of the finals in June 2000, many people may have overlooked that it was not just Sunny Gan's retirent battle, but also Charles Barkley's last ga.
Of course, Barkley didn't care, he enjoyed the championship, champagne, and beer in the locker room, drenched all over, hugging the trophy in front of the locker, and expressing his romance with basketball.
Unlike Gan's optimism and refusal of sadness, Barkley, the tough guy, was more sentintal, his usually loud voice now soft-spoken, with a contemplative, humble tone, putting aside all his forr arrogance.
He said he never thought he would beco one of the 50 greatest stars or be inducted into the Hall of Fa, but his achievents and stats speak for themselves.
Career 1125 gas, averaging 22.1 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 4 assists, one of the best offensive rebounders in history.
11-ti All-Star, 12-ti NBA All-NBA Team, one-ti regular-season MVP, and one NBA championship.
As of the publication of this book, he is the eighth player in the League history to score 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, and 4,000 assists, and he is the shortest one.
How did all this happen? He made too many mistakes, mistakes that could ruin a person's life if made once, yet he solved them one by one, eventually pushing his success and charm worldwide.
That night, the Portland Trail Blazers Team locker room was mixed with joy and sorrow, and such a situation may never occur again.
They won the championship, and almost half of the players were about to retire or consider retiring.
Apart from Ah Gan and Barkley, Sabonis, Dell Curry, AC Green, Chris Mullin, Terry Porter might leave the League.
Eventually, Sabonis left, Chris Mullin retired, Terry Porter decided to leave Portland after so entanglent with the managent, to play in another city, wanting to enjoy a relatively easy basketball life (but fate later played a joke on him).
Dell Curry and AC Green continued to stay with the Trail Blazers, Curry cultivated his son here, while AC Green created a historical consecutive appearance record.
Charles Barkley finally said: "I'm finally leaving, actually the hardest part is, from now on, anything I do for the rest of my life will hardly co close to the achievents I made in basketball over the past 16 years. Such a life... may be very challenging."]
————Excerpt from Charles Barkley Biography, "Barkley," published in 2022, authored by Mote Bella.
Charles Barkley quickly faced a challenge after retiring.
Having completed his deeds with the championship in June, Barkley opened his own celebration.
The first thing he did was feast, on championship night he drank six bottles of champagne, then went to McDonald's and ordered 30 Big Macs to reward himself.
This season, to control his weight, he paid too much, he had long been famished, his desire for food was the sa as his desire for the championship.
For so ti afterward, Barkley didn't control his diet at all, he ate and drank freely, traveled around, his weight quickly soared back to 300 pounds.
Unlike Gan Guoyang, who was looking to the future with many things to do, Charles Barkley just wanted to enjoy, enjoy the beautiful retired life right now.
After earning a lot of money and gaining huge fa over the past 16 years, he temporarily didn't need to worry about work, he played, traveled, and participated in various talk shows.
Barkley planned, he would not touch basketball for 16 months, live over a year without basketball, never stepping into the training ground.
However, this plan was implented for just over a month when Barkley received a call from Gan Guoyang, asking him to return to Oregon, to Mackenzie Valley in Eugene City, to the Arican Basketball Academy.
"What? Arican Basketball Academy? I already planned not to touch basketball for a year, what do you want there for? I'm not going!"
"Plans can't keep up with changes, I originally planned to be President of Arica, change your plan and co to Eugene. I've already booked your plane ticket, everything is arranged. Also, you need to lose weight to under 300 pounds within a week, or you can't play well."
"What? I still have to play? I have to lose weight? Listen to you, Sunny? I won't go, absolutely not!"
"I found you a job at Turner Television, the salary is very high, the contract is very long, and there's a signing bonus. Once I'm done here, you can start working. The contract is here with , are you coming or not?"
Barkley was silent on the phone for three seconds, and said: "Can you give 10 days to drop to 300 pounds? A week is too short."
"Whatever you say, anyway, you need to lose it, when you get to Eugene, I don't want you to be mistaken for a grizzly bear. You should really control your weight, Charles, for your health and future work. Okay, consider nosy, I'm getting old, anyway, hurry along, buddy."
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