http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/the-barkley-doesnt-fall-far-from-the-tree/ar-BBgCqnq?ocid=DELLDHPThe Barkley doesn't fall far from the tree
Speaking up in the Barkley family didn't start with Charles. But he's doing a fine job of carrying on the tradition.
"The only people who distrust the cops are crooks," Barkley told USA TODAY Sports during a recent interview. "They're not out there just harassing innocent people.
"Maybe sometimes they do. But there's no inherent situation where cops are deliberately out there harassing people."
The NBA Hall of Famer turned outspoken television commentator went on to say that poor people are judged more harshly than rich people, adding, "It's about economics. It really has nothing to do with race."
But as he sounded off, Barkley turned taciturn in response to a question about how his family background shaped his personality and controversial opinions, which have infuriated some people who say Barkley has lost touch with his roots in the African-American community.
"I just grew up a poor black kid in Alabama with a single mom and two brothers," he said. "That's it."
While it's Charles Barkley doing the talking, it's his father, Frank, who is getting an earful. And he's angry.
Not at his son, but at people who send Frank nasty text messages and confront him about the controversial comments the retired basketball star made about the events in Ferguson, Mo., race and law enforcement.
To hear Frank tell it, the Barkleys have been tellin' it for generations.
"They say 'He got it from you,'" Frank Barkley told USA TODAY Sports. "He's going to say what he wants to say no matter what I say, or his mom says, or his grandma says. He's going to say what's on his mind."
Just like Charles Barkley's grandfathers, Frank Barkley said.
"They were controversial," he said with a laugh. "If they didn't like things that were going on on the job and things like that, they would speak out about them. They had strikes and things, and they would be involved in them. You're talking about the '50s and the '60s when blacks didn't even have voting rights down South."
Noting that Charles Barkley's mother never backed down, Frank Barkley added, "Just because we came up in the rural South doesn't mean that everybody was afraid.
"I worked for the VA (Veteran's Administration) and there's a whole bunch of (expletive) out there. And they think I'm not supposed to say what I'm saying, but I don't care. This is America."
Barkley's mother declined to comment, but friends suggest she raised a human megaphone.
Long before he earned the nickname of "Round Mound of Rebound," Charles Barkley was the "Round Mound of Sound."
"He used to talk so much, we used to call him Ali," said Travis Abernathy, a former teammate of Charles Barkley's at Leeds (Ala.) High School. "He would tell us when he was 8, 9 years old, 'I'm going to play pro ball, I'm going to play pro ball.' We used to laugh at him because he was a chubby little kid.
"If something came up, he was honest about it. He would tell us when we need a bath, anything. Somebody else would be thinking that person needed a bath. He would actually tell them."
Abernathy also noted the link between Charles Barkley's direct approach and that of Barkley's grandmother, Johnnie Mae Edwards, who worked in a meat factory and died in 2009. Abernathy recalled one day he and another friend were in Johnnie Mae's home without her permission and darted out the backdoor as she returned home.
Later, Abernathy said, she called the two boys over in a friendly tone — and then said, "I catch you running out my backdoor again, I'm gonna shoot you in the ass.'"
Indeed, during a TNT broadcast, Barkley recalled coaching he would get from his grandmother while playing basketball.
"My grandmother used to call me after every game, and if I played bad, she'd say to me, 'Boy, you're embarrassing this damn family.' … Grandma Barkley would say, 'You can't let people tell you they can stop you. You go out there and kick their butt.'"
Yet now, it's others being as direct as "Grandma Barkley" with the basketball star.
Mike Coppola, Getty Images  © Mike Coppola, Getty Images Mike Coppola, Getty Images
April Shelton, who attended Leeds with Barkley's younger brother, took to Facebook and called Charles Barkley "an embarrassment."
She took exception to his branding people who rioted and looted in Ferguson "scumbags."
"These people are hurting, and I don't understand why he can't see the hurt within the community in which they live," she told USA TODAY Sports. "From what we went through in Leeds, Alabama, he should known better. He should know the struggle we went through."
Sidney Jones, who played basketball with Barkley in Leeds, said of his former teammate, "He's talking out of the side of his head. He didn't have none of these opinions in high school. You know, money and fame can really change a person."
Jones said he was one of a half-dozen of Barkley's former classmates who recently gathered to watch college football and the prevailing mood was: What in the heck is Barkley talking about?
Those are the type of questions Barkley is happy to answer.
Dismissing the notion his views are conservative, Barkley said he always votes Democratic, is pro-choice and supports same-sex marriage, a position that he noted puts him at odds with fellow Southerners, both African Americans and white.
"That's one of the problems with this country, they put you in a box," said Barkley, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz. "You're a Republican, you're a Democrat, you're conservative, you're liberal. And that's really unfair."
He also said he feels a responsibility to speak out.
"You can't sit on the sidelines of life," he said. "But everybody can't take the heat. I don't try to tell everybody to jump into this thing because it's not easy sometimes."
But Barkley said he's figured out "the way this whole thing works."
"People like to hear your opinion unless you disagree with them," he said. "I don't think I'm right all the time. But I think I have an obligation to be fair to myself and try to be as honest as I possibly can."
His father said that makes him especially proud.
"You might not like what he says, but that's him," Frank Barkley said. "And I don't want him to be saying things and then going back and saying 'I'm sorry.' You don't say things that you don't mean.
"Here's what I tell people. You don't want to hear him, turn the damn TV off."
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