by Roscoe Nance
For New Pittsburgh Courier

Former NBA star Charles Barkley caught a lot of flak a few years ago when he proclaimed in a Nike commercial that he isn’t a role model.

However, there is no denying that Barkley could be Exhibit A, that coming from a small town isn’t a hindrance to success.

CHARLES BARKLEY

The Auburn University grad who will be the keynote speaker for the inaugural Tuskegee University Athletic Gala at the Kellogg Conference Center on the Tuskegee University campus (Call 334-727-8608 or click on   http://www.tuskegee.edu on the Web), is a native of Leeds, which has an estimated population of about 11,000. But that hasn’t kept him from doing big things.   

Barkley, 45, was the NBA’s MVP in 1993 and was voted one of its 50 greatest players of all time. He was an 11-time All-Star during his 16-year playing career with the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, and he is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In his post-playing career, he has authored three books and won an Emmy Award for his role as NBA studio analyst on “Inside The NBA” on TNT.

Not bad for a small town kid.

Barkley says the keys to his success are God-given talent, his determination to be successful and the realization that a person’s success has nothing to do with the size of his hometown.

“You have to put the work in and be determined to be successful,’’ he says. “You have to prepare yourself to be successful. When you’re successful in high school, you’re like ‘Wow, I’m successful.’ But you have to start all over in college because there are a lot of great ones there.’’

That was true when Barkley arrived at Auburn. His teammates included Chuck Person, a future first-round NBA draft pick, and his opponents included Dale Ellis, Sam Bowie, Dominique Wilkins, Mel Turpin, Jeff Turner and Jerry Reynolds, all of whom went on to play in the NBA. All Barkley did was dominate the Southeastern Conference.

“When you’re from a small town and go to a big city, you realize everybody is from a small town. “When I got to Auburn, there were 20,000 students. Most of them were from small towns. When I went to Philadelphia, none of the players I played with were from Philadelphia. They were from small towns.’’

Barkley never dreamed he would reach such lofty heights as an athlete or anything else growing up in Leeds.

His goals were modest. He just wanted to go to college and get a good job. He had been a 5-10 backup point guard until he hit a growth spurt before his senior year, so he had no aspirations of playing professional basketball.

Barkley’s mother, Charcey Glenn, and his grandmother, Johnnie Mae Edwards, instilled in him the notion that going to college was the key to getting a good job and being successful. They also taught him to take pride in himself.

“I just said I had to go to college,’’ he says “I knew I could do well enough to get a job.’’

Barkley says he is disappointed by the large number of young Blacks who lack determination to be successful, and that he is disgusted with the high rate of Black-on-Black crime and the deterioration of Black pride.

“Young Black men should say, ‘a lot of people did a lot of heavy lifting for me to have opportunities. I can’t (mess) this up.’”’

That’s the kind of thinking his mother and grandmother instilled in him. He is ever mindful that if he were 10 years older, it’s unlikely that he would have attended Auburn and his life probably would have been completely different.

“If I had been born in some other time, people would have been sickin’ dogs on me,’’ he says.

Barkley hopes to have the same type of success that he has known as an athlete and TV personality when he enters politics. He has said he is going to run for governor of Alabama in 2014.

“I can’t mess up Alabama,’’ Barkley says. “We’re No. 48 already, and that’s bad. We’re so far behind the times. We need something.’’

Barkley acknowledges that 2014 is a long way off. In the meantime he says he is trying to be more proactive in Alabama. He donates heavily to children’s causes; one of his donations was $3 million gift to Alabama schools. He is paying close attention to the campaign of Barrack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and squirreling away ideas for when he steps into the political arena.

“The hardest thing he (Obama) has to do is prove to White people we can have Black political figures,’’ Barkley says. “Most Americans just assume they are supposed be white because that’s the way it has been. This is the best opportunity we’ve ever had.’’