Charles Barkley on Why He Gambles: “I Don’t Want to Leave All That Money for My Free-Loading Family”

Charles Barkley is a legend of the game with 11 NBA All-Star Nominations. A player of his stature earns a lot through salaries and endorsements and you must wonder what stars do with that money. While some of them like to spend their fortune on luxury, Charles Barkley has openly admitted that he loves gambling.

“Listen, everybody knows I like to gamble,” Barkley said in a broadcast with golf legend Phil Mickelson.

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Barkley and Gambling:

With an approximate net worth of around $50 million, Barkley isn’t low on funds, and he has hinted that most of that money will be spent in the casinos. He mentioned “I wanna be dead broke when I keel over, Phil. I don’t want to leave all that money for my free-loading family. I’ve been taking care of them my whole life. I wanna be dead broke at my last breath.”

Charles Barkley’s love for gambling is well known. In an interview with Graham Bensinger, he mentioned how he lost around a million dollars ten to twenty times!

“I probably only won a million five or six times. But I’ve lost a million somewhere between 10 and 20. I can’t get an exact number because we’re going back to the 80s.” Barkley mentioned in the show.

Charles Barkley in the NBA:

Charles Barkley was first drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984. Barkley was nicknamed the “Round Mound of Rebound” as he averaged over 11 rebounds per game as a rookie and almost 13 in his second season. 

Barkley played three more seasons in Philadelphia and he finished second in the MVP voting during the 1989-90 season. Then he joined the Phoenix Suns, taking them to their first finals since 1976 in 1993. However, Phoenix lost that final to the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan.

Barkley was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in the year 2006 and also included in the NBA’s 50th-anniversary team.

A ruptured tendon in his quad forced him to retire during the 1999-2000 season, after which he joined TNT as an analyst. Barkley continues in that post and has been a part of TNT’s NBA programming for two decades now.

His role has earned him three Emmys for Outstanding Studio Analyst, along with popularity more than his playing days. Although Barkley has garnered a lot of hate and criticism for his views, he doesn’t seem to care much and he continues to do what he does best.

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