Charles Barkley demands $5,000 refund from NBA for fine from 40 years ago

Charles Barkley was fined $1000 for his role in that fight, which would be $5000 in today's money.

Charles Barkley demands $5,000 refund from NBA for fine from 40 years ago

Charles Barkley wants the NBA to refund his $5000 fine which he was issued for his role in the fight between Larry Bird and Dr. Julius Erving

Charles Barkley has been in a lot of tussles throughout his NBA career. The NBA has reprimanded him on most of those occasions. However, he talked about one incident after which the NBA fined him $5,000.

He wants the league to refund his fine as he had nothing to do with that fight between Larry Bird and Dr. Julius Erving.

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Shannon Sharpe asked Barkley about that particular incident while on his Club Shay Shay show.

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First of all, I hate the NBA for that. They owe me $5000. I'm still pissed to this day. Cause one thing I would never do, is hold a guy for another guy to hit him. So, Larry Bird was a great trash talker. And he's like, 'Charles y'all better get this old man off me,
Barkley said

Barkley alluded that the NBA fined him for holding Larry Bird up so that Dr. Julius Erving could punch him. But in reality, he was just trying to separate them.

I'm telling you'. He's just roasting Doc. He's killing Doc. It goes on up and down. Doc just had enough. They come together and I just kinda grab Larry, I'm not even looking at Doc. I was just trying to pull guys apart.
Barkley added

Charles Barkley considers the Hall of Famer Bird one of the best trash talkers in the league. Which is why Erving pounced on him after Bird kept going at him all night. That resulted in a lot of pushing and shoving on several plays. That ultimately resulted in the fight.

The NBA fined Charles Barkley $1000 at the time. Which would have been equivalent to $5000 today. Therefore, since he was fined for no fault of his, Barkley suggested that Adam Silver should get the NBA to refund his fine.

Charles Barkley remembers the famous trash talk of Larry Bird in the 3-point contest

Charles Barkley continued to reveal a first-hand account of another instance of Larry Bird’s legendary trash-talking. He recalls the 1988 3-point contest situation as he was alongside his teammate Leon Wood in the room.

We are in the room getting ready for the 3-point contest at an All-Star game. Larry walks in says, 'Which one of y'all gonna come in 2nd place, y'all heard me'. That sounded pretty aggressive. He won though. He was one of the best at trash talking. When he came in and said that you could've heard a pin drop.
Charles Barkley said

Essentially Bird’s trash-talking silenced the whole room. Barkley was amazed at the level of aggression Bird showed in that trash talk.

This incident happened in 1988, when Larry Bird was already a 2-time back-to-back 3-point contest winner. So, the swagger came from being the defending champion. But Barkley is amazed that Bird backed up that talk by winning it for the third straight time.

Charles Barkley is still amazed by how much trash talk Larry Bird used to do during his playing days. So much so that he caused the great Dr. Julius Erving to continuously punch him in the head and end up costing Barkley a fine.

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