Charles Barkley Addresses Downtown Lakeland Kiwanis

Like me, I’m willing to bet that the other members of the Downtown Lakeland Kiwanis Club didn’t expect former NBA star Charles Barkley to tell us to “sit y’alls asses down” when we gave our customary standing ovation before the guest speaker spoke today.

Barkley didn’t know that we weren’t reserving that standing O for him. We do it for every speaker who addresses our club. Still, I found his remark funny. He’s a funny guy. Clearly not in love with speaking publicly, but not uncomfortable with it, either. He kept his comments short and left lots of time for questions, which brought the most humorous moments.

Barkley was in Lakeland for a golf tournament at the YMCA’s First Tee. He’s a big supporter of youth-oriented programs and when he participated in the First Tee’s charity golf tournament for the first time several years ago, he said he fully expected for that to be the only time. That wasn’t the case.

“I really look forward to coming down to Lakeland every year,” he said. “These kids deserve an opportunity to be successful.”

Charles Barkley and Shannon Lanier
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the First Tee program exposes underprivileged children to the game of golf who might otherwise have never been able to play the game. The program also teaches participants important life skills.

Barkley supports programs such as First Tee because a lot of kids get in trouble when they don’t have anything to do. Free time gets a kid in trouble, he said. Golf gets them out of the house.

He said First Tee is important because everybody can’t play football or basketball, adding, “we all aren’t going to be 6-foot-5 or taller.”

He described golf as a sport that is grossly underrated when it comes to physical fitness, and added that it is the only sport you can play when you get older.

“Golf to me is just a really cool sport,” he said.

Barkley says he gives a great deal of money to youth-oriented programs and he gets tired of hearing people “harping so much about the ones who screw up.”

“Those who are successful, that is what makes it worth while,” he said, adding not every child who is offered opportunities through such programs is going to make wise use of them, so it’s important to concentrate on those who do.

Here’s what we learned about Barkley during the Q/A portion:

Basketball is a very dangerous sport for him these days.

“I’m so old and fat right now. The l last two times I played, I hurt myself.”

He says he’s done a lot of damage to his body and although he wouldn’t change a thing, he tries to stay away from basketball.

Another question asked was “How’s your golf swing?”

“I’m retired right now,” he said. “I have not touched a golf club and my theory is I suck already, it’s not like if I go out and practice I’m gonna suck less.”

Someone asked him to comment on Tiger Woods.

“If I could talk to Tiger right now, the first thing I’d say is thank God for John Edwards,” Barkley said.

He was asked about rumors that he might enter politics. He said he’s not going to run for office because he doesn’t want to go to work and argue every day.

Barkley saved a bit of time for photos and autographs after the meeting, and I saw tiny Shannon Lanier jump in for a pic with him. She was kind enough to share her photo with us for this post. It should be noted that I saw her standing on her tippy toes for this picture.