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If your role model is Charles Barkley, that's concerning
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00:25Hi everybody, I'm Brian Kenney, and welcome to ESPN Classics' Top 5 Reasons You Can't
00:29Blame, a series that takes a fresh look at sports personalities who are remembered largely
00:33for their mistakes, controversial moments, or questionable decisions. Tonight's subject,
00:39Charles Barkley. In the 1990s, family values became a social battle cry for those who would
00:44tell us what to watch on television, who to look up to, and what our expectations should be of
00:49public figures. Enter Barkley. The NBA's king of colorful and off-color soundbites was at his
00:55professional peak when a Nike commercial debuted in May of 1993. I am not a role model, insisted
01:01Sir Charles. His refusal to bear the responsibility of others' behavior cast him as the flag bearer of
01:07the selfish modern athlete. Let's take a look at the static Barkley created.
01:13Oh, that ESPN news? Y'all still trying to rip people off with that old station, aren't you?
01:19The image that he practiced was the bad boy. He was living life as the kid in the back of
01:26his room
01:26making farting sounds. I'm good at this kid. I was with Barkley in the Olympic Trials,
01:35and Bobby Knight was the head coach at the time. Nobody else was joking around,
01:40and here come Barkley joking around as usual. Barkley didn't... It's the 80s, bro.
01:45That's one of the problems I have with the 80s. Look at his short shorts.
01:52You might as well have women's panties on.
01:56Make that Olympic team, and he should have. You know, Knight didn't want him on that team
02:00because he was so disruptive.
02:02Charles trash talked so everybody could hear it, you know, so the people in the front row
02:06could hear and laugh, so the officials could smile, so the players, so the other coach could laugh.
02:11I love when he told his grandmother, who raised him, that he had become a Republican.
02:18And she said, Charles, you know, how can you be a Republican?
02:21The Republicans are for the rich people.
02:23And he said, you know, Grandma, I'm rich.
02:25Charles, what do you think about the decertification of the Players' Union?
02:29It was best for the players.
02:39He came in as almost like the new breed of black athlete that would speak his mind
02:48and also do his thing on the floor.
02:51I'll dunk on you, go full court, and swing on the rim, even.
02:55In 1984, Barkley barged into the NBA with the 76ers, and over the next eight years established
03:02himself as a premier player while wearing out his welcome in the city of brotherly love.
03:07Dealt to Phoenix in June of 1992, following a row with Philadelphia's front office, the
03:13undersized power forward with the oversized mouth lit up the West with an MVP season.
03:21Him and I are exactly the same height, about six, four and a half.
03:30What he did at that height and dominate games was absolutely spectacular.
03:35I mean, he defended Shaq one-on-one in the post when we needed him to stretch the games.
03:40Charles just willed that team to victory.
03:44During the 1993 playoffs, Barkley touched a national nerve when he appeared in a Nike commercial
03:50that broke with American sports tradition.
03:55I am not a role model.
03:59I'm not paid to be a role model.
04:04I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.
04:08Parents should be role models.
04:12Just because I dunk a basketball
04:18doesn't raise kids.
04:23If it had come from someone else, it probably would not have had the same effect.
04:27But the fact that it was Charles, known for saying anything and everything, whenever he
04:33wanted, had an even greater impact because whenever Charles opened his mouth, people listened.
04:37When I first went to Nike with the idea, I knew it was going to start a major controversy.
04:43He didn't give a s***.
04:44You know, this is me and he's like, f*** it.
04:47If you don't, the hell with you.
04:49People butchered the commercial, but they, as my girl judged you to say, they hear, but
04:53they don't listen.
04:56I just don't think he cared.
04:57I just think he thought, whatever, you know, I'm going to say what I feel.
05:01And if people don't like it, you know, too bad.
05:04It certainly was not a positive thing for the league.
05:08In retrospect, if the league had control over it, the league would never have let anything
05:12like that happen.
05:13It was by far the biggest reaction that I had gotten in my tenure at Nike.
05:20The phones were flooded.
05:22You know, our PR department was working night and day.
05:25The press covered it big.
05:26This was a very controversial statement.
05:30As Nike was bombarded with complaints from angry parents, opinions flew fast and furious
05:35in the national media, including one authored by NBA all-star Carl Malone.
05:40At the grassroots level, teachers were poised to rap Sir Charles.
05:45Carl Malone was always morally policing somebody, and he's the last person to be doing that.
05:52Charles' knuckle.
05:54He just doesn't get it because there are so many single-parent families looking for help
06:01in raising their kids, looking for an example.
06:04That did make me angry.
06:05It's so interesting that Charles Barkley caused such an uproar.
06:11He even did it in a commercial.
06:13It's not even as if he did it in some presidential press conference.
06:16In terms of sports, there's no denying whether you want to do an Ike commercial about it or not.
06:21You're a role model.
06:22You just are.
06:24Okay?
06:24Sports are so important in America, and that's just part of it.
06:31And Charles always had a problem understanding that or not wanting to understand it.
06:39I'm not paid to be a role model.
06:41If he's not a role model, who is?
06:44You're also being paid millions of dollars, and children all over America are looking up
06:47to you, and what do you mean you're not a role model?
06:50As far as role model, youngsters will extract what they want from every individual that they
06:57see.
06:57But he should, you know, be trying to lead children in the right way because they're looking
07:02up to him.
07:03The fact of the matter is, highly visible athletes are role models, whether they want
07:08to be or not.
07:09It comes with the territory.
07:12Period.
07:15The Barkley commercial was a mile and a million percent of the big-time athlete.
07:19Before we count down our top five reasons you can't blame Charles Barkley for saying,
07:22I am not a role model, here are a few that didn't make the list.
07:25We call them the best of the rest.
07:29OJ Simpson.
07:30Prior to his involvement in the trial of the center, the juice was credited as the first
07:35black athlete to transcend race on Madison Avenue.
07:39Before there was anybody using black athletes to sell shoes or cars or VCRs or anything else,
07:47there was OJ Simpson.
07:49Quite a matter that a black man bought us.
07:55Probably misusing the term at the time.
07:58To those who didn't know better, it must have seemed so simple.
08:01Play ball, get rich, then get richer by making commercials.
08:06Too many boys were saying, well, I've just become a professional athlete.
08:10That's what I'm going to do when I grow up.
08:11The fact that Charles had an opinion and offer a solution, we thought was a really great thing
08:16to put out there for people to talk about.
08:20Our other best of the rest, Mean Joe Green, his Have a Coke and a Smile spot in 1979,
08:27opened the way for athletes to show more personality in commercials.
08:31The Mean Joe Green commercial for Coke took Mean Joe Green, put him in a situation where we reveal
08:39something else about his personality.
08:41Here's this little boy who just so looks up to him, and the only thing that he can give him
08:46is this drink to quench his thirst.
08:49That kind of idolizing of professional athletes is changed.
08:55How does that impact the Nike commercial so many years later?
08:59Well, if I'm Nike, I go the opposite way of that commercial, and I create a bit of a buzz.
09:06I am not a role model.
09:09Dan Quayle, the vice president, was the catalyst for an extremely touchy national colloquy on family values.
09:17The reason that the Barkley commercial resonated so widely and controversially was this was a time
09:24that the debate over family values was playing out on a national scale.
09:28While on the camera in 1992, Quayle used Murphy Brown, a TV character who had a baby out of wedlock,
09:36as a prime indicator of what was wrong with America.
09:39Candace Bergen, who portrayed Brown, won an Emmy despite, or perhaps because of,
09:44the hard knocks from the right.
09:47A character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman.
09:53Mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.
10:03One sentence on Murphy Brown, and it came to define him pretty much for the next year.
10:09Was it a mistake for Murphy Brown to portray an unwed model?
10:13I told you, you must have missed what I said.
10:14I said I've just taken the last Murphy Brown question.
10:19This speech that he gave, it was just days after there were huge riots out in Los Angeles.
10:26In the wake of the riots in L.A. after the Rodney King beating, Quayle happened to mention people were
10:34rioting because they lacked personal responsibility.
10:38They lacked father figures, proper role models, and there were too many single mothers who were overwhelmed.
10:46And Quayle was beating this drum, and he used the Murphy Brown sitcom as a negative example.
10:54There is nothing more sensitive than appearing to be telling somebody else how to raise their kids.
11:01I welcome the debate with Hollywood.
11:04Parents should be role models.
11:05These are important messages for us to get out, but we have to be very careful on how we frame
11:10them.
11:11Somebody might be correct, but if the public perceives them in a certain way, the message will get lost by
11:16what people think of the messenger.
11:19I think we should give credit to Dan Quayle and to Charles Barkley for bringing those issues to the surface.
11:30Are you starting to change your thinking? Maybe reason number four will help.
11:35Parents are passing the buck.
11:37Go on and talk to your mom, your dad, or both of them.
11:41It is okay for young people to look up to athletes.
11:44However, it's also important to note that this does not let parents and other non-family adults off the hook.
11:51Just because I dunk a basketball.
11:56It doesn't mean I should raise your kids.
11:59I have been baffled ever since he said it at people's failure and people's consistent misinterpretation.
12:05I don't want to raise your kids, you know. I'm not a role model.
12:07What he was saying was take responsibility for your own children.
12:11You know, I'm not your daddy.
12:14Between 1965 and 1995, working Americans gained six hours of leisure time per week,
12:21almost all of which they spent watching TV.
12:24Meanwhile, parents were spending less time with their children.
12:28I talked to one father and I said, you absolutely must make sure that your child spends more time reading.
12:34He said, I tell my child he has to go read and he said, it's like punishment.
12:39I tell him he has to read for an hour and I have to keep checking on him.
12:43And I said, well, while your child is reading, what are you doing?
12:46He said I'm watching TV.
12:48What Barclay said was that you as parents, as teachers, as coaches are abdicating your responsibility to some guy like
12:56me to raise your children.
12:59The same way, you know, you're putting them right in front of television sets, you know, and letting Tony the
13:06Tiger tell them what to eat.
13:07Well, that's crazy.
13:09Barclay said what everybody ought to be saying.
13:11Don't wait for a professional athlete to mentor your child because he or she is a celebrity.
13:17He got this before anybody else.
13:21I thought then and I still think it's one of the single smartest things anybody ever said.
13:25In 30 seconds or whatever it was, you couldn't get all that.
13:29You couldn't get the whole thing he was talking about.
13:32He was trying to do something, but he got burned.
13:34And it's a shame.
13:40Nike.
13:41It carried the message that put Barclay on the hot seat.
13:44Nike, they've been terrific for me.
13:46Think about it.
13:47Television is the only way you can become bigger.
13:49No matter how good you are, if you're not on TV all the time, people are not even going to
13:53know who you are.
13:54I thought it was Charles and Nike being Charles and Nike.
14:02We had another shoot about that he wasn't a role model.
14:06So he said, well, you know what?
14:07Let's just take that idea, clean up the language a little bit, and turn it into an ad.
14:12I am not a role model.
14:14Nike's rise to market dominance was spurred in large part by a brilliantly conceived and executed commercial campaign that fostered
14:22the personal side of athletes.
14:25We were creating an unplugged style campaign.
14:28This was stripping it all down.
14:31And, you know, shot in black and white.
14:33And getting really deep into the personalities of the athletes and what they thought.
14:40Were they surprised by the impact of this commercial?
14:43They may say they were, but look how they filmed it.
14:46Stuck, gritty, black and white.
14:49Now, come on.
14:50They knew exactly what he was going to say and what kind of a controversy it would cause.
14:56And controversy sells.
14:59This was a big deal.
15:01What we loved about it at Nike was the fact that this was a controversial issue, a heated issue.
15:07Parents should be role models.
15:09Nike does deserve credit for taking itself to task by having one of its heroes challenge the artificial hero syndrome.
15:21I think that role model ad is the best Charles ad, if not one of the best Nike ads we
15:26ever did.
15:27I am not a role model.
15:31If you haven't bought into our argument yet, maybe this next reason will convince you.
15:37Reason number two.
15:39Don't be like Mike.
15:40I already heard you say you're going to beat me to death.
15:43Well, the NBA sent us a rule today that says anytime we foul in and buy delivery too hard, we're
15:47going to get ejected from the game so you're safe.
15:49Good.
15:51While millions worshipped Michael Jordan's good guy persona, Barkley had little choice but to don the black hat.
15:57Which turned out to be a perfect fit.
16:00We always felt like that there was a market for both.
16:04Charles, Charles' image was completely different than Michael's.
16:08Charles was a power type force.
16:11I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.
16:15Where Michael was more of a finesse in the air floating and so forth.
16:19The whole generation of basketball players has grown up trying to be like Mike in every way.
16:26He said, I didn't ask to be a role model.
16:28He told me in one interview.
16:29But I know that I am one and I'm going to live up to it.
16:32If Jordan lived up to it by keeping his political and social opinions under wraps, Barkley spoke out on anything
16:38and everything.
16:41He was the anti-Jordan in a lot of ways because as Jordan practiced hard and set a model for
16:46his teammates, Barkley did the opposite all the time.
16:49He was a kid who never grew up.
16:51You know, he was Peter Pan in the NBA with a dirty mouth.
16:55He still has a lot of...
16:56What do you guys anticipate most about working with Charles?
16:59A round mount, a rebound.
17:01I think you want to be associated with that, all those positive qualities.
17:05And there's also the element of the bad boy.
17:07You know, why does Dennis Rodman have so many endorsements over the course of his career?
17:10You know, people like that.
17:11And anti-hero also.
17:12I think the people here are so fickle, so fake in America.
17:17It's ridiculous.
17:19I mean, if you said today that, you know, a role model, people would say, oh, okay, great.
17:22They wouldn't even be freaking out about it.
17:24In 1994, a year after Barkley proclaimed he was nobody's role model,
17:29Forbes magazine ranked him 13th in annual income among all athletes and third in the NBA.
17:36We positioned Charles, again, as a character.
17:39I mean, yeah, you know, if you had Michael in the penthouse, maybe Charles was on a lower floor.
17:47Thought and belief at that time was that, all right, here's heaven in Michael Jordan.
17:51We have to create a hell because everybody's not going to get to heaven.
17:55So Charles Barkley, they painted him as hell.
17:58All right, here's the other end of that.
18:00You know, be like Mike.
18:01I'm not a role model.
18:02And it worked because now you have everybody covered.
18:09He really wasn't a role model.
18:12You have been to jail?
18:13No.
18:14I have.
18:15Oh, no.
18:17Although many fans believed Barkley's candor made him one of the NBA's most lovable players,
18:23Sir Charles' behavior occasionally backed up his claim.
18:26I am not a role model.
18:28And you sit there saying, how dare you say that?
18:31How dare you?
18:31I'm like, what's wrong with that?
18:33He's not a role model.
18:34My idol a lot of times is Charles Barkley.
18:36I wish I could say what he says.
18:38You look not a f***ing back in a f***ing little f***ing.
18:40They got some hysterical f***ing.
18:43Although you want to say it, it's not the right thing to do.
18:45Charles Barkley will be questioned by police in Scottsdale, Arizona following a late night
18:51fight inside a bar in which Barkley reports punched a man in the face.
18:54He may go to a bar and he won't back away.
18:57If somebody says something ignorant, he'll respond just like a normal person would respond.
19:02If somebody throw a drink on me, I'm going to defend myself.
19:05I think being famous and being a role model are two different things.
19:10Being good at a three-point shot doesn't make you a role model.
19:15Barkley was advised to, shall we say, make a lifestyle adjustment.
19:20So incidents like throwing a person through a window, no matter who is at fault, does not happen again.
19:26Kevin Johnson is a great human being and KJ and Charles were like oil and water.
19:31There's a story of Charles saying, KJ, come to the strip club with me and I'll go to church with
19:35you on Sunday.
19:36And KJ fulfilled his end of the bargain and Charles said, no, I'm not going to church.
19:40How much money have I lost?
19:44Probably $10 million.
19:45He did stupid things and he said stupid things.
19:48But you could forgive Charles Barkley for his behavior because he was approachable.
19:53He was always personable.
19:55A guy that was not caught up in being an NBA star.
19:59I am not a role model.
20:00Most intelligent people watching this should have been saying to themselves, he's right.
20:07He's absolutely 100% right.
20:10Charles was correct.
20:11He says what he believes.
20:12He's not being phony.
20:14He's just saying what he believes in, what he's about.
20:17And if people don't like it, well, he doesn't really care.
20:25If you're still undecided on this issue, you're not alone.
20:28Appearing on The Tonight Show at the start of the 2005 NBA season, Barkley himself told Jay Leno he fully
20:34supported the NBA's strict new dress code.
20:37Said Barkley, too many players have lost sight of the fact that they are the caretakers of the game.
20:42I'm Brian Ketty, thanks for watching.
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