"Certainly, I told him I had a good time talking with him, hanging out with him," my dad said. My dad and Barkley saw each other again in the bar the next night. And then we actually went back to the bar and just sit there and talked for another couple of hours. "And, before we know it, we looked at each other, like, ‘Yo, man, I’m hungry. And we just sit down and started talking." "And me and your dad were the only two people in there. "I was just sitting at the bar," Barkley said. "So, I just went to say hi and take a picture with him," my dad said. "I was in Sacramento speaking at a charity event," Barkley said. "I was on a business trip," my dad said, "and stayed in one of the hotels and was walking in the lobby, and I saw Charles Barkley." "It was, like, one of the most random things," Barkley recalled with a laugh. I told my dad the conversation seemed pretty one-sided and handed the phone back.Īs I talked about the relationship with more and more people, I began to think that either my dad was one of the luckiest basketball fans ever - or this whole thing was an elaborate joke, a " Dinner For Schmucks"-type situation. Their texts were mostly messages from my dad that ended with an excessive number of exclamation points. But again, as a good millennial, I knew that people have very loose definitions of the word "friend."Ībout two years ago, I asked my dad if I could see their texts. ![]() He seemed pretty famous - and definitely not like anyone who would be friends with my dad. Like a good millennial, I Googled Charles Barkley. The first time my dad told the story, I didn’t pretend to know who this person was. Whenever we attended dinner parties, my dad would talk about his friend Charles Barkley. "Well, yeah, he's a top-50 player in the history of the NBA," he said. My dad told me that he knew about Barkley long before he met him. "You know, has a big personality," my dad, Lin Wang, told me last year, when I recorded him talking about Barkley. I said, 'That’s my boy, Lin.' They’re, like, 'How do you know him?' I said, 'It’s a long story.' " Everybody’s like, 'Who’s the Asian dude over there?' I just started laughing. "You know, it was obviously a very difficult time," Barkley told me recently. ![]() Charles Barkley and Lin Wang (Courtesy Shirley Wang) In short, he was everyone’s suburban dad. He worked as a cat litter scientist in Muscatine, Iowa. Here’s what I can tell you about him: He wore striped, red polo shirts tucked into khaki shorts and got really excited about two-for-one deals. He wasn’t a basketball player, he wasn’t a sports figure, and he wasn’t from Barkley’s hometown. But there was also an unexpected guest.īarkley’s friends couldn’t quite place him. When Charles Barkley's mother, Charcey Glenn, passed away in June 2015, Barkley's hometown of Leeds, Alabama, came to the funeral to pay respects. (Editor's note: Check out an update from reporter Shirley Wang.) 13, 2019.This story was re-broadcast on September 19, 2020 as part of The Best Of Only A Game. Main Photo: Charles Barkley speaks at the podium prior to his sculpture being unveiled at the Philadelphia 76ers training facility in Camden, N.J., Sept. ![]() “It’s going to be a welcome addition to my family.” “I love his family, they are amazing people, they’ve been living in Long Island for a long time,” he said. Kimmel asked if Barkley sees himself as comfortable enough with Hoffman’s family to “hang out” with. I don’t understand how insulting another group helps our cause,” he said at the time. The wedding comes nine months after Barkley publicly condemned antisemitism expressed by some Black athletes and entertainment figures last summer. Hoffman is a graduate of the University at Albany who also studied at Baruch College in New York City and speaks Russian, according to his LinkedIn profile. The wedding reportedly will take place in Phoenix, where the basketball star spent part of his career and the rules about gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic are relatively relaxed. “It’s like I’m a soldier, all hands on deck.”Ĭristiana Barkley, a Columbia Journalism School graduate and the basketball legend’s only daughter with wife Maureen Blumhardt, is marrying Ilya Hoffman, founder of the digital marketing company DemandByte, this weekend. Cause I can only get so skinny by Saturday, man,” Barkley said. “Listen, I need all Jewish people on deck, brother. ![]() The former power forward, listed at 6-foot-5 in programs, was once known as the “Mound Round of Rebound” for his prowess on the boards and chunky physique. “I’ve been really working out hard because apparently they’ve got to pick me up in a chair,” Barkley told Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show Tuesday night, March 2, about the most harrowing feature of the traditional celebratory Jewish dance. He’s just a little worried about the hora. (JTA) – NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is looking forward to his daughter’s wedding to a Jewish entrepreneur.
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