When Charles Barkley switched on his "Karate Kid" mode in freezing Milwaukee: "No shirt, no shoes, no problem”
Charles Barkley is known for his crazy antics both on the court and on camera.
From getting into fights with Shaq on the court back in the day, to watching Kenny Smith push the Big Diesel into a Christmas tree earlier this month. Barkley continues to stay wrapped in conflict.
These conflicts, however, have always been in the spirit of the game.
But Charles’ antics did get him into trouble with the law years after he was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers.
Barkley recalled an instance back in 1991 when he was arrested:
“That was the night I got arrested and I did my 'Karate Kid' impersonation. … I took all my clothes off because I had three guys that was trying to beat me up, and I wanted them to think I was crazy.”
Let’s just picture Charles Barkley stripping down and doing a "Karate Kid" impersonation while it was snowing outside. The man truly has no limit to his antics. Even in an arrest, Barkley showed his comical nature.
However, that is not all, as Chuck continued:
“I thought they were gonna think I was crazy and leave me alone … but this one guy kept standing right in front of me, Ernie, and I said, ‘Wipe on, wipe off,’ and two guys backed up and this one fool standing right there and I hit his ass as hard as I could and I broke his nose. No shirt, no shoes, no problem”
Barkley squaring up with the man trying to harass him landed him behind bars immediately.
“I did go right to jail,” Barkley said.
Charles Barkley telling the story of his 1991 arrest in Milwaukee and how he took off his clothes and started doing karate kid moves to confuse three big guys from jumping him https://t.co/wpyLW8QSaR
Charles Barkley antics gone wrong
Aside from the fight that landed Barkley behind bars, Chuck has had multiple instances that have simply not gone his way.
To list every time Charles was aggressive or caused a problem would be too long of a discussion.
So, we narrow it down to a few times that his antics have landed him in the hot seat.
Shaq catches a ball to the head
The first, is of course, when Barkley threw a basketball at the back of Shaquille O’Neal’s head. Though it needs no explaining, because one can imagine what ensued immediately after, it is worth pointing out that Chuck never threw a ball at Shaq again.
The two continued to go at one another as the bigs they were, scrapping and using their size against one another. But that was a losing battle for anyone on the other end of O’Neal. Regardless, Barkley never stood down.
Barkley vs. Bill
Another instance worth mentioning is, of course, the historic 1990 Pistons vs. Sixers brawl.
After dropping 36 points, Charles Barkley squared up against Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in an epic battle that ended up drawing a record total $162,000 fine.
The spitting Incident
The last mention goes out to the unfortunate nature of Barkley’s antics. Sometimes Chuck really was unlucky.
In March 1991, Barkley was playing against the New Jersey Nets when a fan was heckling him with racial slurs. Of course, Charles being Charles, he was going to do something about it.
So, Barkley went to spit on the fan who was heckling him in retaliation when the worst happened — Barkley missed and accidentally hit a young girl instead.
He was immediately suspended without pay and fined $10,000. It instantly became a national story that pressed Barkley as the villain.
In the end, Charles patched things up with the girl and her family. Barkley apologized and provided them tickets to future games, among other gifts.