charles barkley interview with his friend's daughter

charles barkley interview with his friend

#CHARLES BARKLEY INTERVIEW WITH HIS FRIEND'S DAUGHTER UPDATE#

They spent time on the set of Barkley's TNT show, 'Inside the NBA.' 'I think I had Thai basil noodle,' my dad recalled. Lin Wang and Shaquille O'Neal (Courtesy Shirley Wang) 'My friends - Shaq, Ernie, Kenny - they enjoyed just meeting him.' 'I mean, it was just a fun time,' Barkley said. Over the next few years, whenever my dad was in those cities, he would text Barkley, and they would hang out. If I’m in town, we'll hang out and have a good time.' ' He said, 'Whenever you're in Atlanta, New York City or Phoenix, check out with me. 'He said the same thing to me, and he left the phone number. '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.

#CHARLES BARKLEY INTERVIEW WITH HIS FRIEND'S DAUGHTER UPDATE#

(Editor's note: Check out an update from reporter Shirley Wang.) This story was re-broadcast on September 19, 2020 as part of The Best Of Only A Game.

Charles barkley interview with his friend's daughter