Charles Barkley is better known today for his personality
than his playing ability.
The word “turrible” eventually may make it into the
dictionary. His golf swing is the worst athletic move in the world today. His
Capital One commercials with Spike Lee and Samuel Jackson are comedy gold. He
is the person around which the TNT’s Inside the NBA show revolves. And ever
since Shaquille O’Neal joined the TNT gang, the two have had at least one
blowup yearly over the fact that Barkley was never on an NBA title team.
It is the hole in the resume.
Barkley comes in No. 16 here and, spoiler alert, only one
other player ahead of him on my list does not have an NBA championship ring.
All of the players ahead of him have at least two trips to the NBA Finals on
their bios. Barkley just has one.
He was a winner. Barkley’s teams made the playoffs 13 times.
His teams won 60.8 percent of their games in the regular season and 50.4
percent in the playoffs. He only had two deep runs though.
·
His one NBA Finals trip came in 1992-1993 in his first year in
Phoenix. Unfortunately, Barkley’s Suns ran into Michael Jordan’s Bulls and fell
in six games. Barkley averaged 27.3 points on 47.6 percent shooting and 13.0
rebounds in the series.
·
In 1996-1997, when Barkley was well on the down side of his
career, Barkley got back to the Western Conference Finals with Hakeem Olajuwon
and Clyde Drexler. They fell to Utah in six games and Barkley averaged 16.2
points and 11 rebounds.
He was always considered one of the game’s greats. Barkley
won one NBA MVP (1992-1993) and got MVP votes 12 seasons. His advanced stats
back up his reputation. He topped 22.0 in PER 12 straight seasons and 13 out of
14. His career PER of 24.6 ranks 10th all time, immediately ahead of
Kareem Abdul-Jabbor, Tim Duncan and Magic Johnson.
He topped 10.0 in win shares 10 out of 11 years with a high
of 17.3 in 1989-1990. He ranks 16th in career Win Shares, ahead of
Kobe Bryant, Bill Russell and Hakeem Olajuwon.
He ranks fifth all time in career VORP (Value Over
Replacement Player), ahead of Duncan, Abdul-Jabbar, David Robinson and Larry
Bird.
And he’s fourth in career Box +/- with only LeBron James,
Michael Jordan and Chris Paul ahead of him.
What keeps him out of the top 15 is the fact everyone ahead
of him were bigger winners.
According to the advanced stats, Barkley’s three best
regular seasons were 1987-1988, 1988-1989 and 1989-1990.
·
The 1987-1988 76ers, which featured Mike Gminski and an aging Mo
Cheeks as the No. 2 and No. 3 options, only went 36-46 and missed the playoffs,
robbing Barkley of valuable playoff points.
·
The 1988-1989 76ers, which added Hersey Hawkins and Cliff
Robinson to the mix, went 46-36 and made the playoffs. They were swept in three
by the New York Knicks, costing Barkley playoff winning percentage points.
·
The 1989-1990 76ers featured a backcourt of Johnny Dawkins and
Hawkins and went 53-29 in the regular season. Philly knocked off Cleveland in
five but lost to the Jordan and the Bulls in five. Barkley was second in the
MVP voting and this ended up being his second best season in my system.
Although it’s tempting to give Barkley a pass because his
teammates weren’t as strong as Jordan’s, Barkley did play a shade below his
regular season level in those playoff years. That happened again in 1992-1993.
It wasn’t until his later years that he was consistently better in the playoffs
than the regular season.
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Barkley
regular season vs. postseason
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PER
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Box +/-
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||
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Year
|
Season
|
Playoffs
|
Season
|
Playoffs
|
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1984-1985
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18.3
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19.6
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3.4
|
6.1
|
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1985-1986
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22.4
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23.8
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7.9
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9.7
|
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1986-1987
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25.1
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20.2
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9.2
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5.9
|
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1988-1989
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27.0
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24.3
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9.8
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8.8
|
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1990-1991
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28.9
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26.8
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9.9
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11.9
|
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1992-1993
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25.9
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24.9
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7.5
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6.8
|
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1993-1994
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22.8
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27.8
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5.7
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8.6
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1994-1995
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25.2
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26.6
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5.9
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6.6
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1995-1996
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24.8
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27.5
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5.9
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6.6
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1996-1997
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23.0
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20.5
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7.1
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4.7
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1997-1998
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21.6
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16.2
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4.0
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1.6
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1998-1999
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19.8
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29.0
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2.4
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7.4
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In the end, Barkley just never had the one season where he and his team put it all together and that’s what keeps him out of the top 15.
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Charles
Barkley bio info
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Career
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1984-2000
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Games
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1,073
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Points
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22.1
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Rebounds
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11.7
|
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Assists
|
3.9
|
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FG Pct.
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54.1%
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All-Star games
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11
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NBA MVPs
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1
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NBA titles
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0
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Playoff seasons
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13
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Playoff games
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123
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Points
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23.0
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Rebounds
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12.9
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Assists
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3.9
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FG Pct.
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51.3%
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Hall of Fame
|
2006
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Top 100
rankings
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Points
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Top 100 ranking
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1-year
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388.59
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22nd
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5-year
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1,698.37
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20th
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10-year
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3,106.85
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16th
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Career
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4,198.49
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16th
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Charles
Barkley at his peak
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1992-1993
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Barkley
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Top 5
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Points
|
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PER
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25.9
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26.68
|
|
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Win Shares
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14.4
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15.21
|
|
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Box +/-
|
8.3
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8.11
|
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VORP
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7.5
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7.89
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Total Advanced Stats
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56.1
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57.89
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96.90
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Playoff PER
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24.9
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26.21
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|
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Win Shares
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4.6
|
3.24
|
|
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Box +/-
|
6.8
|
9.94
|
|
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VORP
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2.2
|
1.85
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Total Advanced Stats
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38.5
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41.24
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93.35
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Reg. Season Win %
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80.26
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80.26
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Playoff Win %
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54.17
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54.17
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MVP Voting (75 points)
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835/980
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63.90
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Playoff MVP (25 points)
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0
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0
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Total Score
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|
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388.59
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Barkley’s 10 greatest seasons
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|
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1992-1993
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388.59
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1989-1990
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345.69
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1990-1991
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323.34
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1985-1986
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321.46
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1994-1995
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319.28
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1993-1994
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310.78
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1996-1997
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280.99
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1984-1985
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277.51
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1986-1987
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271.30
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1998-1999
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267.91
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Career
winning percentage
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W
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L
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Pct.
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Regular Season
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658
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425
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60.76%
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Playoffs
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62
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61
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50.41%
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Barkley scored 44 in Game 7 to get the Suns in the Finals, where they lost because BJ Armstrong outplayed Kevin Johnson, who had his worst playoff series ever. He also had 43 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a Game 5 win. ... Several of his other chances were derailed by injuries. ... Played only 65 games year after MVP season, yet had 56 points (on 23-for-30 shooting) in playoff game that year, was limping severely at end of Game 7 loss to Utah in 1997, etc.
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