Ever a Critic, Barkley Is Lacking in Credibility

Back in the day when Charles Barkley was selected to be a basketball ambassador as a member of the original Dream Team, he introduced himself on the Olympic stage by putting the force of his 250-plus pounds behind an elbow planted in the modest chest of a player for the Angolan national team.

The overmatched Angolan, Herlander Coimbra, had the audacity to contest a Barkley sortie to the rim during an American rout to launch the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona.

“You hit me, I’ll hit you, even if it doesn’t look like he’s eaten in a while,” Barkley said, oblivious to the fact that his opponent was an economics student from a war-torn third-world nation who said his favorite N.B.A. player happened to be the one, the only and the occasionally ugly Sir Charles.

Given a chance to sleep on that performance, to be a redeem teamer, Barkley said the next day that he was inclined to launch his elbow because he didn’t know if Coimbra “would pull a spear” on him.

Wouldn’t you know it? His audience of reporters had a good laugh. A social critic of slapstick and stereotype got his international baptism. But when did Barkley, an I-man in his own right, become a broadcasting shock ex-jock whose opinions are accepted as serious commentary when he is so lacking in personal credibility?

What makes Barkley — who recently attacked Auburn, his alma mater, for not hiring an African-American football coach — any more of a voice of reason on race than Don Imus?

When was Barkley anointed such an authority on professionalism that his criticism of LeBron James was aired and legitimized as if it had come from the almighty — and not a player whose career greatest hits include spitting on a fan and throwing a bar patron through a plate-glass window?

Earlier this season, Barkley accused James of being “disrespectful to the game and disrespectful to the Cavaliers” by acknowledging in interviews the possibility of a free-agent free-for-all for his services in 2010. Compared with Barkley, James has been an N.B.A. altar boy. He showed up as a teenager with more maturity and accountability than Barkley demonstrates at 45.

“He’s stupid,” James said of Barkley. Harsh, yes, but if the basketball shoe fits ...

We know Barkley is no role model. He told us that himself a long time ago, and he continues to prove it. His arrest early Wednesday morning on a misdemeanor drunken driving charge in Scottsdale, Ariz., was behaviorally true to form — a man-child acting impulsively, living dangerously and ducking the consequences by trying to speak comically.

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According to a police report obtained by The Arizona Republic, Barkley showed his great respect for the female passenger in his sport utility vehicle by telling an officer he had run a stop sign because he was hurrying “around the corner” to have sex with her. After failing a field sobriety test and having his vehicle impounded, Barkley told another officer that he would “tattoo your name” on his behind if that would make the charge disappear.

As an alternative tattoo, Barkley may want to consider plastering to his bald dome one of his favorite critiques for players in his cross hairs on TNT: knucklehead.

That in itself is no crime, and certainly does not make him a rarity in sports or sports journalism. It is just time for responsible news media outlets to cast Barkley once and for all as a television clown, not as the conscience of basketball or future governor — another good one — of Alabama.

Barkley’s rationalizations of his publicized high-stakes gambling and losses have been rambling and at times ridiculous — what you would expect from a man in need of counseling much more than a microphone. His history and lifestyle should always be a sub-context when he rants about contemporary players — what you would expect if, say, Latrell Sprewell were in his seat.

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Contrary to reputed industry bad guys, Barkley never comes off as threatening because he is portly and pouty and pleasant — at least on air, or apparently under arrest (he shook hands with several officers in Scottsdale before being released).

Others with his record of making off-color remarks and less-than-exemplary news would never have been made a studio star, or lasted this long. In a statement Friday, Turner Sports said: “We take these matters very seriously. Obviously there’s a legal process and we have to wait for that to play out so we won’t have any comment at this time.”

Fair enough. If Barkley is found guilty, he will probably be suspended a short time, if only as an attempt to help him grow up. But he won’t be fired, not over this, because there is always a place for a genuinely funny guy to be heard — and not taken seriously, no matter the subject.