Charles Barkley reveals he went to Auburn because they 'sucked'

Charles Barkley is an Auburn legend and a boisterous spokesman for the school. However, his relationship with Auburn didn’t start out of love. While covering March madness on Friday, Barkley revealed the hilarious reason why he chose to play at Auburn.

“I ain’t gonna lie, I picked Auburn because they sucked,” Barkley said much to the amusement of his co-hosts. “I wanted to get to play. Alabama had a great program with Wimp Sanderson. UAB with Gene Bartow.

“But I tell kids — this is the No. 1 thing — you want playing time because if you leave home and don’t get to play, you’re gonna have a miserable time in college. It turned into one of the best decisions I ever made to go to Auburn. But I went to Auburn for one reason: they sucked in basketball.”

At least fans can always count on Barkley’s honesty. In fairness, Auburn had posted four consecutive losing seasons prior to Barkley’s arrival on campus. Moreover, the program had never appeared in the NCAA Tournament before.

In Barkley’s first year on the team, Auburn went 14-14. The next year the Tigers posted a 15-13 record. In Barkley’s junior campaign and final year with the program, Auburn went 20-11 and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.

Barkley led the SEC in rebounding in all three of his seasons at Auburn despite only standing at 6-foot-4. During his collegiate career, Barkley averaged 14.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game.

For his efforts, he was named the 1984 SEC Player of the Year. Additionally, the “Round Mound of Rebound” is a member of Auburn’s All-Century team and still holds the program record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. Alas, Barkley never would’ve been a Tiger if Auburn had already been a blue-blood program.

“When I went down and saw them bums play, I was excited,” Barkley said about his visit to Auburn.

Obviously, Charles Barkley’s decision worked out well for him. He not only found immense success at Auburn but in the NBA as well and his broadcasting career after that. Ahead of Auburn’s first-round showdown against Alabama State on Thursday, Barkley praised head coach Bruce Pearl for his success at the helm of the program.

“I want to thank Coach Pearl for what he’s done at Auburn. You know, No. 1, I never thought Auburn would make the Final Four, because obviously football is king,” Barkley said on CBS. “When he took us to the Final Four a few years ago, I thought, ‘Man, this is the greatest season in Auburn history.’

“But what has happened, Auburn has been ranked high the last couple of years and we lost early in the tournament and the fans were like, ‘We want more.’ And this year the pressure has racheted up even more because they’re the No. 1 overall seed and pretty much been No. 1 the entire season. So I just want them to go deep, I really do. I’m excited. I’m cautiously optimistic.”