Charles Barkley Wasn't Always A Fan Of Police

DECEMBER 3--Charles Barkley didn’t always think that cops were so “awesome.”

The former NBA star, whose recent comments about crime and the Black community have caused a stir, once threatened to “kick an officer’s ass” when police sought to question the athlete after he tossed a man through the window of a Florida nightclub.

As detailed in an Orlando Police Department report chronicling the 1997 incident, Barkley, then 34, was partying with Houston Rockets teammate Clyde Drexler when Jorge Lugo, 20, tossed ice at him.

With Barkley chasing after Lugo, an off-duty cop working at the bar grabbed Lugo at the front door. Barkley then pulled Lugo from the officer and threw him into a plate glass window. The basketball player then yelled at the prone and bleeding Lugo, “You got what you deserve. For all I care, you can lay there and die.”

Barkley then left the club with Drexler, ignoring police demands to stop so that he could be questioned. A cop reported that he repeatedly told Barkley to stop, adding that he had to call for “immediate backup.”

“Once additional officers arrived we tried to get the defendant to cooperate with us. The defendant yelled at officers, and said he would kick an officer’s ass too, if he felt like they disrespected him,” Officer Toney Sharp reported. Barkley added that he “would pay the fine” stemming from such an ass kicking.

Barkley was subsequently arrested for resisting an officer without violence for failing to following police orders and interfering with investigators. He was also charged with the aggravated battery of Lugo. Barkley eventually pleaded no contest to the resisting charge and was ordered to pay $1500 in fines and restitution and perform community service.

The NBA Hall of Fame member was far more cooperative when Arizona cops arrested him in December 2008 for drunk driving.

Pulled over after running a stop sign, Barkley told cops that he was rushing to pick up a girl who had “given him a ‘blow job’ one week earlier.” Barkley described the prior fellatio as “the best one he had ever had in his life,” according to a police report.

While being booked for drunk driving at Gilbert Police Department headquarters, Barkley told a civilian police worker that, “I’ll tattoo your name on my ass” if it would get him out of a DUI charge. (5 pages)