Many NBA players have expressed their love for other sports, but they didn’t end up choosing them as a career. NBA great Charles Barkley was one such player with an intense love for football, which he termed his “favorite” followed by boxing. However, he disclosed the reason for not pursuing a career in the NFL.
Recently, when the 61-year-old appeared on the Club Shay Shay Podcast, he revealed that as a high school student, he tried his luck in the NFL, which ended on a bad note. “I played the one day and I just ran into a guy full speed for two hours, this is the stupidest sh** ever! I was sitting in the locker room, I was bloody and beaten up, I had my head down and the coach says,”I’ll se y’all tomorrow”. I said, ‘wait, we doing this tomorrow! I am not doing this sh** tomorrow under no circumstances,” said Barkley.
Although he feels football is a “Real Man” sport, he couldn’t associate himself with the risk that comes with it, so he switched his path to the NBA and decorated a glittery career entire of achievements. With his experience, he once tried to put some sense into Lakers‘ ace LeBron James, who is known for his love for the NFL.
Charles Barkley Warned LeBron James About Joining NFL
Barkley warned LeBron on Inside the NFL about thinking that the move from the NBA to the NFL would be easy based on their high school playing experience, which was because of their height and pace.
Calling out the 20-time All-Star for his likeness towards football, Barkley said, “But most these guys never really played in college. That’s when you really see how good you are when you go to college. And if you’re lucky enough to get to the pros, that’s the crème de la crème… But I love these basketball players talking about, ‘Well I was good back then.’ I’m like ‘Dude, you can’t play football. These are grown men out there, they’ll kill you.'”
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Throughout his 21-season career, LeBron displayed marvelous performances, and Barkley claimed to have loved him for that, but the 39-year-old’s revelation regarding the desire to play football brought out such remarks from Charles Barkley.
