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BOOKS

Barkley: A Biography by Timothy Bella

In the world of sports biographers, for about a decade there have been a few gigantic subjects dangling out there, waiting to be tackled.

Guys who aren’t just stars, but icons. Who go by one name. Who have a generation of fans from the 70s, 80s and 90s waiting to be served the definitive, behind-the-scenes stories of the athletes who shaped their lives as sports fans.

From a writer standpoint, taking on a project of that size is monumental. Everyone seemingly knows everything about these dudes. Your research needs to be exhaustive and impeccable. And you need to uncover a ton of new things or people won’t care. So far, most of the big names are off the board: Jordan is done. Tiger is done. Tyson, Shaq and Kobe are done. Dr. J did an autobiography. Favre is done. Iverson has been done and another is coming out.

Jeff Pearlman took Bo Jackson off the board. Howard Bryant did Rickey Henderson. Roland Lazenby recently finished his monumental manuscript for his Magic Johnson biography. Griffey is still out there…waiting…. Larry Bird is too… So is Deion…

And Tim Bella took on Barkley.

I don’t envy the task. Not only is Barkley still extremely visible and super famous to this day (hurts the nostalgia angle), but he’s also written a bunch of autobiographies.

What I’m saying is the information on Charles is readily available and for big time Barkley fans, you may be 3 books deep… this raises the level of difficulty for Bella, but he was up to it.

He interviewed 370+ people for the book (Barkley wasn’t directly involved and wouldn’t be interviewed), including close members of Charles’ family and just about every important teammate, coach or friend who matters.

I respect the hell out of Bella for taking this one on and you can tell he wanted to leave no stone unturned. I’d imagine that many NBA fans under 35 have no idea what a beast Barkley was in college. They probably have no clue that he was the second best player behind Jordan during the 1984 Olympic Trials but Bobby Knight hated him.

They know little of his time with the Sixers, I’d guess. Especially the early years… And that’s where this book shines. The Sixers period and the Suns years are exceptional.

Younger sports fans who only know Barkley from TNT will learn the most from this book… And I also think that anyone who grew up in the 80s or 90s and who remembers what a force Barkley was on the Suns will really dig those sections. And there are really cool stories about how Barkley landed on TNT in the first place, and how he became a household name. If any of this intrigues you, then I’d pick up this book right here.

BICEPS

I grabbed this awesome photo of the sun rising on my street while I was running early morning sprints. I try to run sprints at least once a week. They’re a great, full body HIIT workout and the only thing you need is a place to run.

A bunch of people DMd me on Twitter after I posted this, asking for my workout, so here it is:

Streetlight Sunrise Sprints

4 x 200s jog nice and easy

10 x 100s 60-70% top speed

2 minute rest

10 x 100 80-90% top speed

NOTE: It takes me a looong time these days to feel like I can run full speed without pulling anything, so don’t be stupid and pull something. Some days I never go above 70% if I feel tight. No need to get hurt. You’re just trying to get some hard cardio in.

QUICK FLEXES

It’s always fun catching my books in stores. Saw 1996 on display in a Barnes and Noble this week. Look how gorgeous it is hahaha:

I also uncovered this amazing quote from Randy Savage in my research for his biography.

When he was asked, “who is the one entertainer you would like to see perform but haven’t?” he gave this legendary answer:

PS:

Don’t forget to check out my list of the 15 Most Memorable Books that I Read in 2022.

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Have a great weekend! - Jon