A young Charles Barkley dunked a lot! One may remember Chuck’s thrilling 30-point matchup against the Pistons in 1987. He was out here throwing down monster dunks on everyone! Not for a moment can we imagine his embarrassing moment could be from his career. Well, there have been some off-court ones, such as when he mistakenly spit on a young fan. This was a moment that he deeply regretted. This one moment, quite shockingly, is from a game against the Purple and Gold. 

Chuck almost went to the Lakers once, however, the deal was canceled the same night the offer was made. While Sir Charles didn’t happen, this team did become the one against whom  Chuck ended up having an embarrassing moment. On The Steam Room podcast, Chuck was asked by a fan whether he had any embarrassing moments and what it was. Surprisingly, he spoke about one of the matchups that he played against the Lakers. 

“Probably one of the most embarrassing moments. We were playing the Lakers, and I did this dunk, and I dunked it. And the ball hit me in the head and came back out of the basket. No, but they didn’t count it because it went right back through. But I did this, and I dunked, and I was under the basket, and it bounced right back up through, and they didn’t count the dunk. that’s the only thing yeah and I was like that should have counted,” Chuck said.

It’s quite odd how Chuck, who had a not-so-pleasant dunk experience in the matchup against the Lakers, was critical of LeBron James‘ recent dunk. You might remember that King James delivered a highlight-reel moment against the Mavericks in January. In one of his attempts to dunk the ball, when Dereck Lively tried to stop him, he switched hands mid-air and threw down a dunk. Barkley liked the dunk, however, he had an issue with how many times the clip was shown in the media. “It was a very nice [play], we don’t have to show it a 100 times,” Barkley said once.  

While this incident with the Lakers remains his most embarrassing moment, there’s another instance from his high school days that he once considered bitter but later saw as a lesson.

Charles Barkley referred “not graduating” as “humiliating” experience 

Speaking of embarrassing situations, he also mentioned the time when his teacher failed him in Spanish, preventing him from graduating. More than embarrassing, it was a tough time for Chuck. He was heartbroken. Graduating is everyone’s dream. He once recalled how his father, who almost never visited them, had traveled all the way to the city just to attend his graduation ceremony. 

He was upset at both his father and his Spanish teacher. “I was angry at my dad, and I was angry at Ms. Gomez. Ms. Gomez was my Spanish teacher, and I flunked Spanish…. I didn’t get to graduate. I stood next door at the baseball stadium on the top rung by myself, and I watched the entire graduation, and I cried unmercifully for like an hour. I was so distraught,” the Philadelphia 76ers legend said.

Johnson was quick to remind Chuck that, rather than embarrassing, it was a painful story. Both went on to joke about how the most embarrassing moment would be to bump into a table and knock food off and they haven’t encountered anything like that. Chuck added that there is still time, as he often visits restaurants, and it might happen. And when it comes to Chuck, there is a big chance that it might happen.