Some nobody Chinese immigrant found himself alone in a hotel bar with Charles Barkley. They got to talking and became lifelong friends. This is a sad/sweet story written by his daughter.

[www.wbur.org]

When Charles Barkley's mother, Charcey Glenn, passed away in June 2015, Barkley's hometown of Leeds, Alabama, came to the funeral to pay respects. But there was also an unexpected guest.

Barkley’s friends couldn’t quite place him. He wasn’t a basketball player, he wasn’t a sports figure, and he wasn’t from Barkley’s hometown. Here’s what I can tell you about him: He wore striped, red polo shirts tucked into khaki shorts and got really excited about two-for-one deals. He was a commuter. He worked as a cat litter scientist in Muscatine, Iowa. In short, he was everyone’s suburban dad. More specifically, he was my dad.

"You know, it was obviously a very difficult time," Barkley told me recently. "And the next thing I know, he shows up. Everybody’s like, 'Who’s the Asian dude over there?' I just started laughing. I said, 'That’s my boy, Lin.' They’re, like, 'How do you know him?' I said, 'It’s a long story.' "

The story is worth reading (or listening - it's a radio broadcast)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2018 10:50PM by hal.

Wow! That was an awesome story!

Thanks so much for sharing with us!

Dave

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Welcome to Dave's BBQ!

Many have eaten here....

Few have died

Thank you.

I had read that and it's an incredible story. Lin's daughter really wrote it well.

Wow.

Talk about getting misty.

A very well written story.

Thank you.

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I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

That's such a great story. It'd be considered "an unlikely friendship" to anybody who'd never met Sir Charles, but he's exactly the person described in that piece in real life.

Very sweet. Thank you for sharing.

I was with some coworkers from my Birmingham, AL based ad agency, waiting for a table at Porter House, the steakhouse in Time Warner Center, when someone in our group spotted Barkley and he walked over to chat with us.

He was as real as a person could be who has run around in rarefied circles for a long time.

At the time we were discussing how UAB's football team had been eliminated (they're back now) and he was asking everybody in our group where they went to school. One person said Samford, one said Auburn, and Barkley asked me, did you go to UAB?

I said no, I went to Emory.

He said with a roar, "AAAAAAUUUUUGH. SMARTY BOY!"

I have laughed about that many times since.

Enjoyed talking with him very much.

When I was in college, Barkley played for the 76ers, and they practiced at our gym. My girlfriend at the time was on our field hockey team, and worked out at the gym. One day, we're walking on campus when she says, "hey, there's Charles Barkley." She shouted out, "hey Charles!" He looked over and said "Hey Laurie!" I was shocked. I had no idea she knew him.

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rz
When I was in college, Barkley played for the 76ers, and they practiced at our gym. My girlfriend at the time was on our field hockey team, and worked out at the gym. One day, we're walking on campus when she says, "hey, there's Charles Barkley." She shouted out, "hey Charles!" He looked over and said "Hey Laurie!" I was shocked. I had no idea she knew him.

The great thing about Charles is, he knows that kind of thing absolutely makes somebody else's day when he does it. He very obviously loves that, and loves being able to do it anywhere he goes.