Bruce, Barkley & Basketball: 'I'm going to always come to Auburn'

AUBURN, Ala. – One month away from embarking on his final season on “Inside the NBA,” hall of famer Charles Barkley returned to Auburn for the 11th annual Bruce, Barkley & Basketball Golf Classic Presented by YellaWood.

“Auburn is a great place,” Barkley told participants before they teed off Monday at Grand National. “I want to say thank y’all for showing up.”

Barkley has been showing up for Auburn since he arrived on the Plains in 1981 and led the program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1984 as the SEC Player of the Year.

Forty-five years later, the 1992-93 NBA MVP and two-time Olympic gold medalist is still true to his school.

“There’s no better ambassador for Auburn and Auburn Athletics than Charles Barkley,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “Jackson Koivun’s giving him a pretty good run for his money right now. For Charles to come back every year to support our program, our family and our foundation, it means the world. He’s a great representative for this program, for this university, and I’m very fortunate to call him a friend.”

“The man is busy,” Bruce Pearl said. “He’s got a lot going on, but he doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk.”

Speaking to reporters before Monday’s event, Barkley recapped Steven Pearl’s first season as head coach, which ended with Auburn cutting down nets in Indianapolis after winning the NIT.

“I thought Steven did a fantastic job last year,” Barkley said of Auburn’s 22-16 record in Steven Pearl’s head coaching debut. “Winning the NIT was a great accomplishment. He was in a very unique situation. He had 10 new players, and he almost made the tournament. I’m very happy with our basketball program right now.”

Auburn returns starting guards Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton for Pearl’s second season, which begins with October exhibitions in Birmingham against Florida State and Alabama before the regular season tips off Nov. 4 vs. Southeastern Louisiana at Neville Arena.

“Steven Pearl’s always had a chip on his shoulder,” Bruce Pearl said. “That chip is still there. He wants to coach with a chip; he wants his players to play with a chip. They (national media) are not talking about Auburn and that’s fine. That’s okay with them; they’re just going to have to play their way back into where they belong.”

“They want to make the Big Dance. That would be a great accomplishment,” Barkley said. “They needed to get bigger, I think he’s gotten bigger. Their guards are back, which is always a good thing. To win the NIT, that was a great way to finish up his first year.”

As for Barkley, his 27^th season bringing analysis, opinion and a healthy helping of humor to “Inside the NBA,” will be his finale.

“I’m looking forward to this last year,” Barkley said. “TV has been great to me. I’m going to take a step back from public life. I’m going to always come to Auburn, though. I want to make that perfectly clear. It’s been a great run; it’s been a great journey. I thank everybody for their support all these years.

“This is going to be more like a celebration because I’ve had the greatest life a person could have.”

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer