Charles Barkley is an incredible storyteller who has been part of many serious and funny moments. Barkley appeared on the podcast All the Smoke and shared a funny story about going to watch a Mike Tyson fight.
Barkley went with some players on the 1992 Dream Team to a Mike Tyson fight. However, quite hilariously, Barkley did not get to witness any of Tyson’s fight. Here’s Barkley narrating the story:
“I’m with Magic (Johnson), Michael (Jordan), Patrick Ewing, and they’re all like early in my career, I’m a young buck on the totem pole. They make me go get drinks, and I come back and Tyson already knocked this mf out.
“Are you f***ing serious right now? These mf’s are laughing at me. I’m walking around with two buckets of popcorn and some drinks. They’re just f***ing laughing at me.”
Barkley was young and got bullied into bringing the drinks. It must’ve been an annoying experience for him to miss the knockout delivered by Mike Tyson.
Charles Barkley threw drinks in the air after missing the knockout – Magic Johnson
While Charles Barkley was humorous when telling the story about being bullied into bringing drinks that led him to miss the knockout in Mike Tyson’s fight, he might’ve left out some crucial details.
Fortunately for fans, Magic Johnson told the same story on a different occasion on Jimmy Kimmel Live. According to Johnson’s version, it was Barkley who volunteered to get the drinks instead of being bullied into it.
That might not be true, though, and Johnson might just have been trying to appear nice. Here’s Magic Johnson’s story (at the 13-minute mark):
“The greatest moment happened when we went to a Tyson fight. Most of the Dream Team were all there together.”And Charles Barkley stood up and said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna get drinks for everybody.’ So, he took everybody’s order. Well, the bell rang as he got in the hallway to order the drinks. And Mike went and knocked him out in 20 seconds.”
Johnson continued:
“Charles Barkley comes back with all the drinks, and he said, ‘What happened?’ And we said, ‘The fight’s over.’ He threw the drinks in the air. He stormed off. He was so mad.”
That might have been a hilarious sight, but it wasn’t just Barkley who would’ve been upset given the circumstances. Any fan who went to watch the fight would’ve had a similar reaction, but that might not have included throwing drinks in the air.