Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 9:00 am  |  25 responses

Barkley Wants Shot at Being an Awful GM

Charles Barkley wants to be a GM, and is evidently not afraid of failing spectacularly in the role: “[Teams] are taking a chance on guys worse than me,’ said Barkley. ‘First of all, I think my résumé is better than some of the other guys who have gotten jobs running NBA teams.  want my chance to fail, just like everybody else.’’’

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  • http://gwadayouth.com Reed

    A new “Bad Boys” era in the making?

  • Some Baller

    Barkley is hilarious. Still I do think he should get his chance to fail. I mean he aint gonna do any worse than the Piston Bad Boy 1.

  • Bear

    This should be good.

  • iLL wiLL

    Can you imagine talking to Charles Barkley during trade talks?

    Or Sir Charles preparing for a draft?

    Or Sir Charles informing you that you’ve been waived/traded?

  • Ree Roe

    Is Sir Charles still tryna be Govenor of Alabama too? I don’t think he’d be an awful GM tho, Charles would be TURRIBLE!

    -REEcently Roe…YO!

  • tw

    i think sir charles would make a great awful Gm

  • heartlandG

    Why not!? Cant be worst then Jordan lol

  • http://slamonline.com Bryan Crawford

    “Turrible” is spelled wrong in the headline.

  • NUPE

    I agree that Barkley’s resume is better than some other GM’s out there. He knows the league, the system and the players – just don’t know if he really knows talent. Jordan as great of a player he was, can’t assess talent or how to use it in a system. It would be interesting to see how/what he would do if given a chance – if I was an owner I’d def consider it.

  • http://slamonline.com/ niQ

    Nupe, that’s cause the only person Jordan ever saw talent in was himself. =P

  • http://slamonline.com YKnot

    Chuck is loud, opinionated, rude, enjoys good brain. Sounds more like a politician than a GM to me!

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    The title is totally unbiased!

  • Clark

    So what team should he get? I think the Warriors.

  • Keith

    I’d choose Bill Simmons over Barkley.

  • k3v1n3o5

    The only players he knows the names of are the All-Stars.There is no way Charles would make a good GM…..Failure from the start!

  • edmalhas

    Go to the Knicks. How worse can it get?!

  • Tommy Patron

    What resume?

  • Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » Links: Lunch with Charles, Kenny and Ernie

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Charles is mad lazy.
    However, if Steve Kerr could randomnly go from being a broadcaster to being a GM, why can’t Charles?

  • Anony Mous

    @ Keith: I’d rather have Richard Simmons

  • JD

    Is this before or after he runs for Senate or Congress or something?

  • http://www.teflinprague.com SAB

    co-sign Allenp. trouble is, being a GM is a long-haul type job… he’s gonna want to make a headline every month or two, and he’s just not gonna be able to… so he’d/we’d get bored by it…

  • NUPE

    Charlse can be abbrasive at times, but he does know baskeball, understands chemestry and does actually get along with most of the players. The fact that he’s a hall-of-famer to doesn’t hurt. If Steve Kerr and Danny Ferry get chances, I don’t see why Barkley couldn’t get a shot as well. I hate saying this, but maybe this is just part of the everlasting issue of race. You have a league of many African-American players (current and past), but relatively few AA coaches and even fewer GM’s. I’m not calling any individual racist here, but when the numbers are so skewed, something has to be going on. Should Barkely get a GM job? – I don’t know, but when you look at his background compared to Kerr of Ferry you’d be hard pressed to find why he shouldn’t be a GM.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    NUPE
    I don’t know about the race thing directly. I think it’s more related to the general idea of which players are smart and hard workers. If you look at both of their careers, Ferry and Kerr both got tagged with the smart hard workers label. Also, you have to consider that maybe those two hung out more with front office types, while Barkely has spent most of his time with ex-players, particularly ex-star players.
    I think Kerr’s situation is more comparable to Barkley’s than Ferry’s. If I’m not mistaken, Ferry spent some time behind the scenes in San Antonio kind of doing grunt work before he moved into the front office. However, Kerr transitioned directly from broadcasting to the front office.
    I think that was highly unusual actually, and can’t think of too many cats who have done that. Honestly, if I was looking for a GM, I wouldn’t be paying too much attention to Barkely. He relies too much on “feel” seems to be unwilling to put in long hours even for broadcasting, and tends to say stupid stuff to the media. Those aren’t exactly the qualities you want in a GM.
    I think there is a possibility race plays a factor in who gets GM jobs because of the way race affects people’s perceptions of players and job applicants, but I don’t think it’s a factor for Charles. His persona over the past few years probably hinders him more.

  • NUPE

    Allenp,
    Your points are well taken. I certanily won’t dispute that Barkley doesn’t have the reputation and image of a typical GM. But that’s part of the problem. Historically certain players were considered to be ‘smart’ or have a ‘high basketball IQ’ like Ferry and Kerr. Other players are said to have such a ‘feel for the game.’ As you stated, race plays a role of how people are perceived, and Barkleys DUI is not a matter of perception but a matter of fact. If a owner said he didn’t want to hire Barkley for that reason, I’m o.k. with it, however the other ‘soft’ perception based factors are the ones that are most difficult to judge as being a race item or not. Many companies when they hire someone look for this thing called ‘fit’, it’s not on a resume so really hard to judge what it really entails. That’s why sometimes all we are left with is the data. If not race, I’m not sure how else to explain why so few AA GM’s in the L. Again, not calling anyone a racist (at least not by intent) and I have no problem with Barkley not being a GM based on who he is, it’s just seems that so many other opportunites/chances haven’t gone to AA’s in lieu of people like kerr and ferry.

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