The Round Mound of Rebound wasn’t looking forward to Philly Cheesesteaks.
Charles Barkley is arguably one of the best Philadelphia 76ers of all-time, but in a conversation with Jason and Travis Kelce on their New Heights podcast, the forward spoke about how he tried everything he could to not be drafted by the team.
“I was about 300 pounds in college, ” the Hall of Famer said. “The Sixers brought me in for a visit and the owner says ‘Hey everybody’s concerned about your weight.’ I think I had six weeks before the draft. He says ‘I want you to stop back here the day before the draft…we want you to weigh 285.’ So I get down to 285, and then my agent says to me ‘they have a hard cap in the NBA, so if you get drafted by the Sixers, you’re going to have to play your first year for $75,000.’”
Barkley was not pleased with the idea that he’d only be making $75,000 when his talent warranted much more in his eyes.
“I didn’t leave college for $75,000,” Barkley said. “I could have got that much in college.”
The forward had only a few days before the draft and to stop Philadelphia from drafting him he did the only thing he thought would work: eating.
“We went to Denny’s in the morning, to get the Grand Slam breakfast and everything, all three days,” he recalled. “I stop in Philly, I weigh 298. I gained like all that weight. I told you, I was 283. I got like 299, right in there, and the owner called me every name in the book.”
And then it was draft night, 1984.
Despite ownership being blindsided by Barkley’s eating binge, when Philadelphia was on the clock with the fifth overall pick they still drafted him – which led to pure shock for the forward.
“I tried to eat my way out of Philadelphia,” Barkley said. “True story.”
Eventually the Sixers made enough cap room via trade to sign Barkley to a four-year contract worth $2 million.
Barkley ended up making multiple All-Star teams and All-NBA appearances during his eight years in the City of Brotherly Love, and he surely got paid as well.
