Why Charles Barkley Is Getting Rid of His Trophies

NBA star is building affordable housing in his hometown
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2020 12:28 PM CDT
Why Charles Barkley Is Getting Rid of His Trophies
In this June 25, 2018, file photo Charles Barkley arrives for the NBA Awards at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif.   (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Old trophies and medals? Who needs those? Not Charles Barkley, who is selling off a number of items from his NBA career for a lovely reason: He wants to build affordable housing in his hometown of Leeds, Alabama. "All that stuff is at my grandmother’s house ... to be honest with you," Barkley told WJOX-FM of his memorabilia, per the Washington Post. He says his daughter wants to keep one item: "the '92 gold medal because of how sentimental it is to the world, the first time we sent pros to the Olympics. All that other stuff is just an eyesore." Speaking of eyesores, he explains the situation: Barkley says there are probably "30 eyesores, as I call them," in Leeds, "where houses used to be when I was growing up. Either a rotted-out house or there’s just weeds that have overgrown."

So he teamed up with sports card and memorabilia company Panini to plan the sale. It estimates he can get up to $400,000 for the 1993 NBA MVP trophy he's selling; as for the 1996 Olympic gold medal, he says a rep told him, "I don't even want to guess, but I can get you a lot." He'll also be selling plaques, jerseys, and shoes autographed by himself and many other basketball greats. "I don't think I have to walk around with my gold medal or my MVP trophy for people to know I'm Charles Barkley, so I'm going to sell all that crap," he said on the Dan Le Batard Show, per Yahoo Sports. He wants Leeds "to give me the spaces, number one. I want them to give me the houses, and I'm going to use my own money selling my memorabilia." It's not yet clear when the sale will take place. (More uplifting news stories.)

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