Incident shouldn't sink Barkley's unique role in the sports world

Charles Barkley's sometimes impolitic commentary strikes a chord many people don't readily admit makes them laugh. AP

Charles Barkley is perennially identified by that dreadful word "controversial," which is all too often now employed by the insecure to put down anybody who dares flaunt originality. And Barkley has been one of a kind ... again and again and again.

To begin with, he was that oddity, a fat basketball player -- Boy Gorge and the Crisco Kid, he was called in college. He was an oxymoronic short rebounder -- the Round Mound of Rebound. Middle-aged, he is a large man of large, intemperate habits, especially where booze, betting and sex are concerned.

Sir Charles has baldly admitted losing $2.5 million in six hours at blackjack. When he was arrested on New Year's Eve for driving under the influence, he glibly volunteered to the constabulary that he had run through a stop sign so that he might more quickly arrive at a venue where he could better enjoy the company of his female companion. He is unfiltered, without guile.

So, yes, Charles Barkley is a very naughty boy, and sometimes, yes, he ought to have his mouth washed out with soap. Most famously, he spoke these words after absolutely hammering a skinny African player in the Olympics: "How was I to know he wasn't carrying a spear?"

Now, I know you will hate me for admitting this, but all of us who heard Barkley make that remark presumed to recoil in horror ... even as we tried to stifle a laugh. Mea culpa. Barkley understands that while it may not be nice, a lot of the stuff we laugh at is insulting of others. He may be working the sports circuit, but he is heir to a long comic legacy.

But in this particular case, Barkley managed to be twice flagellated: first for being a bad sport -- picking, physically and figuratively on a poor, weak foe -- and second, for practicing a double standard -- making an offensive remark that he could get away with only because he was African-American. But then: tit for tat: through the years, Barkley's often made rather blunt remarks about the athletic limitations of white basketball players. These have absolutely horrified lots of white people. Of course, all sorts of observers, white and black, make the same sort of remarks in private -- although they're not nearly as funny as the way Barkley phrases them.

Sorry, my reaction is, if you're in the majority and the minority teases you ... take it like a white man.

Anyway, now that Sir Charles' transgressions have gone beyond roiling social nicety and risen to a point where John Law has intervened, many Pecksniffian sorts who have been offended in the past by the Barkley chorale couldn't wait to rise up to castigate him. Listening to some, you'd think this off-the-cuff analyst of profound issues like zone defense and the pick-and-roll was a threat to the morality of the state and to the tender sensibilities of the youth' of America.

Barkley has agreed to stay away from TNT for a bit. Fair enough. DUI is dangerous business, and he deserves to be punished. But, for goodness sake, have we reached a point where we take sports so seriously that chubby, chattering old ex-ballplayers are treated to the standard of preachers and presidents? Amidst all the tedious sports analysts who treat games like worship, Sir Charles happens to be three things: fun, unpredictable and blasphemous. And, as always, two outta three ain't bad.