"I'd have played against him (Len Bias) for the next 14 years. I would have been in my prime and he would have been in his. I'll never forget what he looked like. He was a 'Wow!' player. When Maryland played and was on television, I watched. It was like, 'I need to watch this guy; I'll be seeing him real soon.' . . . It was just shocking. Thing is, cocaine was huge then. My brother had been in and out of rehab a few times. . . . It was a popular drug at the time. And guys I was playing against, like John Lucas and Michael Ray Richardson and John Drew had done cocaine. I was thinking: 'What the hell is up with this cocaine? I should try this once to see what it was all about.' Then, we heard the reports were that Bias only used it once . . . that it was his first time. When I heard that, it scared me to death . . . scared the daylights out of me. It scared me into not trying it even once, not going anywhere near it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Activists from the United StatesJournalists from AlabamaTelevision personalitiesLGBT rights activists20th-century African-American people
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Asked to comment on the 20th anniversary of the cocaine-overdose death of Len Bias,
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Barkley
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Charles Barkley
Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963, in Leeds, Alabama) is a former American basketball power forward. A current resident of Arizona, Barkley is commonly nicknamed Sir Charles and occasionally The Round Mound of Rebound. Barkley was named Most Valuable Player of the NBA in 1993. In 1996, the NBA's 50th anniversary, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Barkley won the Olympic gold medal with the U.S. Dream Teams in the 1992 and 1996 Games. He was inducted into the
16 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Charles Barkley →
Related Quotes
"Can I Play??"
"I am not a role model. I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents shou…"
"Oklahoma is nothing but vast wasteland; no place for black people."
"The Oklahoma Sooners and the Hornets are the only brothers in town."
"I don't know anything about Angola, but Angola's in trouble."
"I was going to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I have no character."
"You know it's gone to hell, when the best rapper out there is a white guy and the best golfer is a black guy."
"Kids are great. That's one of the best things about our business, all the kids you get to meet. It's a shame they hav…"
"Anytime a fan touches you, you have the right to beat the hell out of him."
"Only poor people go to jail."