I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It
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3.9 • 30 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Charles Barkley has never been shy about expressing his opinions. Michael Jordan once said that we all want to say the things that Barkley says, but we don’t dare. But even die-hard followers of the all-time NBA great, the star of TNT’s Inside the NBA and CNN’s TalkBack Live, will be astonished by just how candid and provocative he is in this book—and just how big his ambitions are. Though he addresses weighty issues with a light touch and prefers to stir people to think by making them laugh, there’s nothing Charles Barkley shies away from here—not race, not class, not big money, not scandal, not politics, not personalities, nothing. “Early on,” says Washington Post columnist and ESPN talk show host Michael Wilbon in his Introduction, “Barkley made his peace with mixing it up, and decided the consequences were very much worth it to him. And that makes him as radically different in these modern celebrity times as a 6-foot-4-inch power forward.”
If there’s one thing Charles Barkley knows, it’s the crying need for honest, open discussion in this country—the more uncomfortable the subject, the more necessary the dialogue. And if the discussion leader can be as wise, irreverent, (occasionally) profane and (consistently) funny as Charles Barkley, so much the better. Many people are going to be shocked and scandalized by I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It, but many more will stand up and cheer. Like Molly Ivins or Bill O’Reilly, Charles Barkley is utterly his own thinker, and everything he says comes from deep reflection. One way or another, if more blood hasn’t reached your brain by the time you’ve finished this book, maybe you’ve been embalmed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
NBA star Barkley still only the second basketball player in history, along with Wilt Chamberlain, to total more than 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists has refused to go quietly into the mists of sports legends. One of the most controversial professional athletes in any sport, Barkley has repositioned himself as an outspoken and provocative sports commentator for the TNT network, reaping a new and large viewing audience in the process. This sports memoir Barkley's first is a highly entertaining and remarkably thoughtful work that successfully continues his ongoing repositioning from on-court wild man to provocative analyst. "I'm trying to transition from sports into something broader, with wider social implications," he writes. In a book that often reads like an overlong Sports Illustrated interview, Barkley explores a wide range of interests. Each chapter has a theme, and Barkley has no problem speaking his mind on any topic, whether it is politics ("Poor white people and poor black people just don't know how much they have in common. Rich people don't give a damn about either group") or lack of minority control in sports ("Black people ought to want other black people to be successful and work hard and accumulate some wealth and build a new damn reality"). In between these chapters are other sections that retell some of the great and not-so-great moments in his career, such as his involvement with Michael Jordan in the U.S. Olympic medal winning "Dream Team." But transitions within and between chapters can often be jarring (in one chapter he suddenly launches into a criticism of abusive priests). Despite that, this is a very entertaining look at one of the most intelligent minds in pro sports, and like Barkley's career, it's bound to produce fierce arguments.
Customer Reviews
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Douche bag