Getty Image / Paras Griffin
Nowadays, Charles Barkley spends much of his time as an NBA analyst for TNT.
Today, he made an appearance during a college basketball game on ESPN.
"Make $40M, $50M and rest. These guys act like they're steel mill workers."
Charles Barkley #NBA load management.
"We flew commercial. These guys got private planes, they've got the best nutrition, they've got the best doctors, they make $50M and they can't play 4 days a week" pic.twitter.com/7J9er6RxOK
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) January 28, 2023
During his appearance, Barkley revealed why he chose Auburn when he was getting recruited to play college basketball.
They sucked, to be honest with you. I tell all of these kids if you want an education, you get an education anywhere. But the No. 1 thing you look at if you’re going to a school is playing time.
It may sound like a joke, but Barkley probably just gave some really good advice to athletes figuring out where they want to play in college.
We know now that Barkley was probably good enough to play for just about any team in the country. However, picking a school where you don’t know if you’ll play is a pretty big risk.
The perfect example of the downside of taking that risk comes from the college football world. Tate Martell was the Gatorade Player of the Year in high school and had a ton of hype during his recruitment.
He ended up choosing Ohio State. His freshman year he redshirted. The next season, he couldn’t beat out Dwayne Haskins for the starting job and only threw 28 passes all season. The next year, the Buckeyes brought in Justin Fields the next year and Martell transferred to Miami.
He was unfortunately never able to get his career back on track.
Meanwhile, Martell’s high school backup had much less fanfare in his recruiting, but ended up picking a school where he would start early and put together a successful college career. Dorian Thompson-Robinson spent 5 years as the starter at UCLA.
At the end of the day, a lot of how a college athlete’s career plays out comes down to the school they choose.
Charles Barkley clearly got it right when he picked Auburn.