Celebrating Sir Charles

of how he approached the game. Celebrating Sir Charles. On this episode of the broadcast, What's Good out There, seventy six Ers pod people, I'm Brian Seltzer. Grates you with you on the podcast. As always on this episode of the podcast, Yes, we are going to dive in to the Legends Walk sculpture unveiling for a one Sir Charles Round Bound of Rebound Barkley A great event held at

the seventy Sixers Training Complex on Friday the thirteenth. Charles was in the house his family, former coaches, teammates, seventy Sixers executives and staffers who all touched Charles in some way shape or form during his time with the seventy Sixers in the mid nineteen eighties to early nineteen nineties, a great tenure that laid the foundation for a Hall of Fame career for Charles Barkley. So we're gonna talk

with Barkley. We're also going to speak with the artists who designed and sculpted the new statue of Charles Barkley on Legend's Walk. But first, our customary reminder that if you are not yet a subscriber or a follower of the podcast, we encourage you to become one right away. Where just about everywhere you can find pods these days, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud, tune in overcast, pocketcasts, Deezer. Just type in Sixers podcast Network and that will take

you to our feed. So yes, we've got interviews with Charles himself and the design and sculpting team behind the new statue of Charles Barkley on the way. But first I wanted to play some highlights from the ceremony for Charles held at the seventy Sixers training complex last week before his sculpture was formally unveiled on Legend's Walk. I

don't know if I haven't been that skinny. We're gonna hear from managing partner Josh Harris, co managing partner David Blitzer, general manager Elton Brand, and the head coach of the seventy sixers Brett Brown, putting the significance of Charles Barkley in their own words, I'm really very, very excited to be able to honor Charles Barkley, or Sir Charles, or

Street Beef or the round Mound rebound. For you old timers that are in the in the audience, Charles, You've stood for excellence your entire career versus an NBA player and now is a leading voice in our sport. Whether you like it or not, today you are a role model. I grew up really worshiping him because he was different. He was different as a player, he was different as a person. He was always real. You talk me to three bees when it comes to speeches, be brief, brother,

So I'm gonna work on it. It's truly a tremendous honor to celebrate someone that I looked up to and emulate it in my game every day. Simply, we are privileged to have you a part of our past. You are referenced often. Your statue is not taken for granted.

It's not something that just sticks it. We referenced that, and for me personally to be able to sit here and say that in front of you is a tijuana a montage about the man, the round Man, Charles Barkley, And following the unveiling of a sculpture on Legend's Walk, we had the opportunity to chant with Charles about what the honor means to him, his time with the seventy Sixers and the legacy he hopes to leave behind. Why don't we start with you just walking us through what

your day has been like so far. Tell us about that here's been a fine day. It's amazing. I really appreciate the Sixers honoring me. You know, Philadelphia means a great deal, you know, to come here as a twenty one year old kid had never been out of the South before, and the city welcomed me with open arms. And then for the opportunity to play with a doctor j and msim Alone and Bobby Jones, Maurice Cheeks, Andrew, Tony,

Clint Richardson, Clement Johnson. Guys like that, Bobby Jones, who's one of the most amazing man I ever been around. It was a great situation, you know, because a lot of times and Billy Cunningham was a great coach also, but they taught me more about life than about basketball.

And I was so lucky that a guy like Moses Malone, who's the most influential person in my basketball career, you know, he you know, I asked him one day, it wasn't wasn't not it wasn't getting to play, and he said I was fat and I was lazy, and it's strong obviously, but I said, what do you mean. He says, you can't play basketball out of shape and at three hundred pounds, And for a guy that greeted basketball to take the time to get me in shape, it meant the world

to me. And he made me lose fifty pounds and the rest is history, obviously. But if if a guy liked that didn't care, I wouldn't be sitting here today. So I was just lucky to come to a great situation. This is nothing away from the Nie Smith Hall of Fame because that is one of the ultimate individual liners

in the sport. You get a jacket there nowadays here you have a sculpture and artistic embodiment of your likeness while you were playing, when you were walking up to take the cover off the statue, where you're feeling anxious, where you're curious, and then when you saw the sculpture, when I think of it, well, it's interesting you ask me that question, because the guy did a fantastic job.

The guy did a fantastic job it. I said, it looks like me, but you know, so I got a statue at my college and the first time I saw it was awful. Look nothing like me, and it's not You're not putting that thing up anywhere. So I say, the first time I saw this this thing was when they asked the unveiled it, and I thought the artists did a fantastic job. It looks like me. But I think the main thing is just the honor the Sixers did not have to do it. I sincerely thank them

from the bottom of my heart. But it's just a really cool thing, you know. So every time these guys come, they get to see it, but they also get to see dog Moses and all those other guys. So it's special. And like I said, Philadelphia means a great deal to me and I will always be thankful for this city. It's awesome. What was it like being able to mingle and interact with so many people from your life and your time here in Philadelphia throughout the day, former teammates,

former coaches, staff members. What was that like? Well, it was special because they could have been doing something else. You know, we don't see each other that much anymore. We all live with scout it all over the world. You know, sports aren't like people think it is, like you might play with guys, but once a season over, you don't see them in again until the next season. You know, a lot of guys go back to their

hometown and things like that. So when you see these guys, you know, Johnny Dawkins, I'm watching his success as a college coach now is British special. One of my old teammates, Joe Henderson, was great to him. See my old coaches, the old actually the old owner of the seventy sixers. But also you know there's three or four guys who worked for the Sixers, and actually Scott Rigo and Adda Lumpkin are still there. And I saw Running Robina today

who I hadn't seen in a minute. But you know, the one thing that I said in my speech, nobody's successful by themselves. And I want to repeat that. Nobody is successful by themselves. So, as I said, everybody who went to college with me, who coached me my first excuse me. I want to go back to high school.

Every player who played with me in high school, every player who played with me in college, eight years in Philly, four years in Phoenix, four years in Houston, every coach I ever played for, they get a little piece of the statue. And because, like I said it, life is a journey, and there's so many people who've been on this journey with me. It's amazing. One of the themes of the speeches that were given before you got up to the podium and spoke was just the generosity of

your spirit. What's the origin of that? Where does that come from? Man? I just be nice. You know, you know you do something stupid like dribble of basketball. You know, like I say, there's like three real jobs in the world. Teacher, firing, policeman, doctor. You know, I'm not a teacher, I'm not a filming

and all the police. When those jobs are really important and significant, we make a lot of money to dribble stupid basketball around, get to travel the country in the world, you know, work for seven months a year, get three or four months vacation with the luckiest people in the world. And I think you should always sign autographs. I think you should always take pictures. Is it a pain sometimes?

Of course it is. But you have to look at the big picture to be able to dribble a basketball and have the things that have happened to me in my life. Man, I'm just a lucky dude. So I try to always be cordial to everybody and don't take myself too serious, and then to build off that. I know that when guys are playing, it's probably not something

that's on the forefront of their mind. But as you're working your way through your life post plane crew, do you think much about, like what you want the legacy of Charles Barkley to be? You know, if someone had to write up what your legacy was, well, I don't think about that too much. What I think about is when you die, people say, oh, sorry, he's gone. He was a good dude. I mean, because you don't want to be one of those people says glad he gone. I mean, and I don't mean that to be more

better whatever. I don't want people to cry for a week when I kill over. I'm not afraid of death. I know it's coming, but I mean, let's be realistic. When some people die, we're glad they're gone. That's just I want people to say, oh, good dude, and that's it. But like I said, I don't want to my legacy is when I kill over. I don't want people to be able to say I don't want them having part

said I'm glad he's gone. Charles Barkley hard to find too many people like Chuck and just really a lot of fun and awesome to have the opportunity to sit down with him and talk the day of his sculpture unveiling on Legend's Walk here at the seventy six ers Training Complex, And it really was amazing that the recurring theme for virtually everyone who spoke in tribute to Charles up on the podium during the ceremony last week, the recurring theme was one of Charles just always giving back,

never being too big. Despite all of his fame and success, he has this genuine, good natured wanting to make others feel good. Aspect of his personality that he's carried with him really for the majority of his life. Just a really excellent guy. Hey, some really exciting news from seventy six Ers land In recent days. The team has announced the details for its annual Blue and White Scrimmage. It's gonna be held Saturday, October fifth at one o'clock at

seventy Sixers Field House in Delaware in Wilmington. It's the home of the Sixers ge League affiliate, the Delaware Bluecoats. Tickets are free, but to secure them, you've got to sign up for the sixth Man fan newsletter that's going to have all the information about how to sign up for free tickets to the Sixers Blue and White Scrimmage at seventy Sixers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Saturday, October fifth at

one o'clock. To sign up for the Sixers sixth Man Fan Newsletter, go to Sixers dot com slash sixth Man. The other interview we have for you on this episode of the podcast is a conversation with three guys who really formed the brain trust behind the design, execution, installation of the Charles Barclay sculpture on Legends Walk from Fisher Sculpture. It's Chad Fisher, co founder and lead sculptor on the project.

His father Fran another one of the co founders of Fisher Sculpture, and Doug crew Girl, who was the assistant of Chad Fisher on this project. Official Sculpture has created each of the now eight statues on seventy six Ers Legends Walk. And we started the conversation with Chad and I asked him how was it that his family's company got to be involved in this initiative in the first place.

We got involved when Moses Malone passed. We have friends over at NFL Films and they suggested that we should reach out to the seventy six Ers because they will probably do a statue for Moses. And so we reached out and said, you know, if there's any interest in doing a statue of Moses, we would like to participate somehow, some way of honoring him. My dad. You know, we're

from the Philadelphia area. My dad porn in Philly, so you know, we're pretty we have an emotional connection to the Sixers and you know, four or five or five teams, you know, and uh, it was it was important not only to my father and to myself to honor Moses if possible, UM bringing the championship, and you know, my dad always talked about him and Julius, and so when we reached out UM, we then had a meeting with Chris and Chris Heck and Katie O'Reilly and they proposed

doing a walk outside of their new facility which was being built, which would honor all other retired numbers and it would be called their Legends Walk. And at first like, it's great, you know, um that that's that's going to be incredible. Why don't we do well, are we going to do portraits of them? Like how do you want to organize this? And they said no, we would actually like to have the full figure in this space, just

outside of one of the buildings. And it's like, oh wow, we get an opportunity to actually make the figure in motion, so it's not just doing a portrait. We get to compose these little harmonized I guess designs of basketball players that hasn't been done before. So because really, you know, there may be a basketball player here or there at a stadium or you know, at a facility, but to have this what Christ has described as an outside gallery

for the seventy six ers was phenomenal. So as soon as that conversation took place, we got started and it's like, how can we You know, we're all about harmony, so we wanted to have each figure in harmony. But then we also wanted them to be unique in their own way, so they'd have their own anatomy, their own personality, and each one would be a piece of art in itself, but also they would be one unit of legends that any viewer could observe and see differences and similarities within them.

So it has I have grown so much through this project because it's been challenging on one end and it's just been so satisfying on another end, and it's just been wonderful. It is a really awesome point of pride just speaking to someone who comes into the building day end, day out, like you look forward to making that walk at least I do, from the business office, which is where I work, to the Basketball Operations building because you get to have a glimpse of these statues and figurines

on a regular basis. And now, as you said, I mean, this isn't the first one. We're starting to get up there where I won't give away any spoilers, but after the installation of Charles Barkley, there's two left in the series, so we're kind of getting there and you can see it all come together and fan I gotta because it almost like, I don't know if bitter sweet is the right word, but it really is. Now the whole vision

coming together with this project. It's both. It's interesting that seeing the lineup and talking to the points of harmony and how they all work together with the ball moving up and down as you go through the lineup, it is bitter sweet to see just the last two, which we won't talk about yet to be installed shortly. But it's been a wonderful journey with the Sixers. We're probably four years into this from first discussion to today, and

it's been a wonderful experience. We have helped make the players, the staff, and I think the fans see a different aspect and Chad and our team has had the opportunity to create true fine arts sculpture and bridge the gap between worts and fine art sculpture and portray harmony excellent portraiture, and it helps the fan base actually become fans of good fine art no question, Chad. It starts with hal Greer and then it goes through different eras and periods

of the seventy six ers in their history. Talking about the sculptures on the Legends Walk, what distinguishes this specific sculpture of Charles Barkley from the other installments in the series. So with this one, yeah, and it does with Charles that you know, he has to come through with thunder. You know, like this sculpture has to have his presence. Not only you know, it has to look like him, but it also has to be you know, his movements, So it has to have some personality, it has to

it had. The idea of the sculptures is to present the souls of the figure, so they're just not mannequins. And that's where that's what differentiates fine art from other stuff, which is it's not factory work. It's fine arts. So they breathe and they have a soul. And with Charles, it's like, you know, he has to come through with thunder, he has to come through with power. You know, his anatomy. I mean, he was just a very well built man.

I mean his his calves are huge, uh, you know, and just like so I've analyzed Will and I've analyzed how Greer, and I've analyzed like Bobby Jones, and then you analyze Charles anatomy and his his caves are enormous. I don't believe how big his arms are, Like, I mean, he's very well built. And then the fact that he

had this athleticism and finesse. It's it was. It was a delight going back through highlights and going back through all of his different you know, uh, poster material photographs with Chris and Katie and we worked with des Ron and my going it's just and Jacqueline. It's just like going through everything with the Sixers team of saying like does this represent Charles's best and we it's really been like a collaboration with the Sixers. It's like because it's

not like this is what we're doing. It's more of been like, all right, let's do this, but like can we push it a little bit? You know, how how much can we take this to the edge of the engineering and the anatomy to make this the best work of art possible? And so Charles, Yeah, he's coming through with some power. That's the idea is to his differential is just it has to be. It has to show him, you know, as he stepped on the court that this man was a little bit different in the sense of

how he approached the game. These probably aren't the finest details of the piece, but Doug, something that jumped out to me was even down to like the seventy Sixers logo on the warm up shorts for Charles that in the pose on this sculpture when he's going up for the tomahawk dunk, like the shorts are raised and you can see the Sixers logo. The detail on the sneakers

give us some insight. Dug on more of what Chad was talking about, the depths that you guys go to and researching the subjects that you're sculpting, the lengths do you go to to make sure that all the details are there in the piece. Well, I've only been working with Chad for a few projects now, but I've already witnessed, yeah, just how intensely he researches things, and he goes as far as to order, you know, pairs of shoes off at eBay that he finds that are the exact match

of the shoes he's looking for. And really I've seen stacks and stacks of photocopies of every angle he can find of, you know, the subject matter to make sure the portraits right on, and the whole stance and position of everything. So yeah, the details are what early makes it true to that person and the whole era and the sport itself. So that's amazing, Like that something that

just the layman and myself would never think of. Of course, like yeah, you order the shoes, it's just going to give you that much a better sense of what these guys are wearing. What is it like for you? And I can ask guys, since since you guys have been with it from the start, Chad and France, what's it like for you the day of the sculpture unveiling when

you're here. I know you've brought family in the past, you obviously are a family, but to be here to see I would presume some of your heroes having this moment and being honored in this way. What is that day like for you? Guys? It's very specials and the Sixers make it special, you know, um, you know we they're open to inviting my kids and it becomes this

whole thing of teaching. It's a teaching point for me as a father and and the history of the game, what basketball represent and what um human achievement represents, and why these players are being revered with a bronze statue,

Like what did they do? Um and so um? When I was when it was Julius Irving, I was showing my kids um different YouTube videos and different images and him dunking from the foul line, and you know, just showing them as much as possible who this man was to the history of the game with the ABA, how he changed. My daughters are now playing basketball within their school be just it really has an effect. And you know, the cities are great because they're they're just so warm

to my family and so that's been wonderful. But I remember my daughter when I said, you know, mister Irving, do you mind taking a picture with my family? My daughter's like he touched me. So they they've learned to look at them with admiration as I did because of

the way my father spoke with them. And whether it's the earlier figures like Hal Greer, who has unfortunately passed since his statue, but he was able to see himself immortalized in bronze and I think that's a really special moment for you know, you see your when you question your mortality, I think it's a good thing and to question your achievements and to question what are you doing with your time? And how they used their time, how they persevered, and so it's been a really great element

as a father and as a person too. I've grown quite a bit. I learned from them, you know, reading how much how hard they practiced, what they had to do. How Julius would stand underneath the basketball hoop practicing over and over with his left hand and over and over with his right hand, and it's just like wow, you know there is no ceiling, like you can go further

and um. So it's each statue then on that day of the unveiling is a chance for us to be together in the education, but also a moment for us to to watch everyone react to the statues and and then that that's that's the fulfilling end the mind and is to see the reaction and saying oh, it looks like him, or that you know it actually looks like him,

or this is the portrait. The portrait is right, or oh, look at Bobby Jones, you know, diving for the ball or that's the way Billy shot, you know, his jumper. So it's like it's it's nice to see that people look at all the little nuances in the details and they're happy. You know, you actually get when as soon

as the veil goes off. I tried to look at whoever's being represented and the family members that are with them to see if they're happy, because if they're happy, then it's like, Okay, we did our job, and uh, you know, we don't want any anyone looking at like, oh, I don't know, you know, because um there there as statues like that, and we're trying to do our best

and honoring them because it's their legacy. This is this is their representation at the six Ers, so you have there's a responsibility on our end to do it right. The sense of pride is very high with the reveal, and I always reflect on the first sketch that I saw Chad do and all of the effort, the hundreds of steps behind the scenes that it takes to get a and a thought into final bronze. It's great for

our family. There's a lot of pride in the family for what Chad has achieved and what we've achieved as a small family company. I also see something interesting, and it was Chris had mentioned this. Chris, I could mention this. The players always glance down the line, and I know some of them, if not all of them, imagine themselves on one of those pedestals at some point in time in the future. And I think that was part of

their intention. And it's brilliant. You know, you capture the city, you teach people step by step how art is made. Number Two, you inspire the players. You create a transformation as you and other people come to work. You know you're in a special place. When you see a company like the seventy six ers provide the funding for this Walk of Fame, it is tremendous. It's got to light people up at work here. It's got to light up

to players. And then, of course those that are honored can't be anything but proud of their achievements to see their image there permanently in bronze. I know I said earlier that there are two more sculptures remaining in the series, but I think we should put a date on the calendar twenty to twenty five years from now, maybe get a couple more Larry O'Brien trophies in the building, and some guys in the current roster we might need some

statues as well. Well. This has been terrific guys. Congratulations on a project, well done, awesome stuff. Appreciate at the time and congrats thank you. Yeah, I mean it is not far fetched in the least to think about guys on the current seventy sixers roster who who knows, someday

may like Charles Barkley, be immortalized with some bronze and treatment. Hey, coming up next time on the broadcast, we're going to dive into how the seventy sixers starting five stacks up against its competition, not just in the Eastern Conference, but around the rest of the league. That episode will be coming away, most likely early next week, so be on the lookout. Talk to you them here on the broadcast. See it that that