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Charles Barkley Offered Encouragement After Sweeping Kevin Garnett, Timberwolves

Shandel Richardson

Dec 28, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Garnett (21) pounds his chest before the game against the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images
Dec 28, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Garnett (21) pounds his chest before the game against the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-Imagn Images / Soobum Im-Imagn Images
In this story:

NBA great Charles Barkley was known for a lot of things during his playing career.

No filter. Elbows. Cursing out fans. Fights with Bill Laimbeer.

But motivator? That wasn't really mentioned until Kevin Garnett relayed a story from the 1997 Western Conference playoffs.

By then, Barkley was chasing that elusive title with the Houston Rockets. Garnett and Stephon Marbury were leading the young Minnesota Timberwolves. They were overmatched facing the veteran Rockets in their first playoff series.

They were swept 3-0 in the first round.

That's when Barkley offered these words of encouragement in front of the scorer's table.

"Charles Barkley pulled Steph and I at the end and I didn't want to hear this shit," Garnett said. "I was livid. He grabbed me by the arm and I jerked away. He was like, `Come over here, God dammit. Listen, y'all got to take this ass whooping and learn from it. This is what's gonna make you hungry. You're gonna be back here a million times. What you gonna do when you come back here?' And he walked off. That echoed in my head the whole summer."'

Garnett and Marbury showed improvement the following year when they lost to the Seattle SuperSonics in five games in the first round. It was their last playoff series together. In the spring of 1999, Marbury was traded to the New Jersey Nets.

The duo was perhaps one of the league's greatest "what ifs" had they stayed together a few more years.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Back In The Day Hoops On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com