San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Charles Oakley embraces role as ‘The Last Enforcer’
The good news is Charles Oakley's new memoir, “The Last Enforcer: Outrageous Stories From the Life and Times of One of the NBA's Fiercest Competitors,” comes with a six-page index, for easy perusal. The bad news — particularly if you played in the NBA during the power forward's 19-year career, from his 1985 debut alongside Michael Jordan on the Chicago Bulls, to his 2004 retirement from the Rockets — is if you find your name in the book. I hope not. I mean, after a light, laudatory forward by Jordan himself (“He truly was my enforcer”), Oakley begins, in the first sentence, with direct words for Charles Barkley. No, he never punched Charles Barkley, he explains:
“I did, however, slap the (expletive) out of him.”
Barkley — who would become the Joker to Oakley's Batman, or perhaps vice versa — gets dozens of references, not one pleasant. “Mention my name to Barkley today,” he writes, “and he'll go the other way.”
“The Last Enforcer” is about the dust-up as a way of life and an often thoughtful argument for standing your ground. After retirement, Oakley would throw himself into cooking, and a brief stint on “Dancing With the Stars,” but the confrontations would continue.
The other day, I spoke with Oakley by Zoom. He was at his home in Atlanta. The following is a shortened version of a longer conversation, edited for clarity and length:
Q: What’s the difference between, say, how you saw your role in the NBA and what an enforcer in
By Charles Oakley
Gallery Books 288 pages, $28.99
the NHL does?
A:
I always just saw my place on a team as closer to the way my grandfather was to my family. I took that into my life. I understood I could protect people with my size and physicality, so I should never back down. That kept me a leader on the court and in life — people look at you as the guy who will speak up. I conduct myself the way my grandfather did. And my mom, who moved us to Cleveland, had to find a job and provide for six kids — but on holidays, she found a way to cook not only for us but other families in the neighborhood. Which was exactly like
my grandmother back in Alabama.
Q: But did it limit how you were seen within the game — as a supporting man and never a leading man? Though I suppose when you are playing alongside Jordan …
A:
You just answered your question. But yeah. Coming to that team, they had like three or four guys who would get 20 points a game. In my college career, I averaged 20 in my last year. But I wasn't trying to get 20 (in the NBA) … I was just happy to be there, and to have been drafted, to be playing with Mike. I accepted that role. I choose to be the guy inside, who set down the paint, played tough, set the tone. For a team to win, you need different instruments. Everybody can't sing.
The Last Enforcer
Q: Do people come at you now, in regular life?
A: I do get that. People try to start something. I take my time, I play it down, but sometimes you have to protect yourself. And it doesn't happen a lot, which is amazing.
Q: That said, you could have titled this book “Barkley and Me.”
A: Yeah, well.
Q: How did that beef start?
A: I guess when he tried to smack me on the cheek in a game. Ever since, it's all-out warfare. I've been around him a couple of times since. Nah, he can't get it. Him and Isaiah (Thomas). Now Isaiah is talking smack. He's mad he wasn't on the Dream Team. When he didn't get on the Dream Team, it hurt his feelings. He's sensitive. He's mad Mike came and took his hometown, Chicago (where he spent high school). He's a mad guy.