Welcome to the Edge of Sports podcast. I'm Dave Ziron. This week we are talking to the author of the new book, Barclay, a biography. His name is Timothy Bella.

And if you had questions about Charles Barkley, there's a good chance that I'm going to ask

him, at least if you're listening to this podcast.

Also, I got some choice words about what the detention of Brittany Griner says about politics in this country.

And it ain't good.

Also, I've just stand up and just sit down awards and more.

But first, let's go to Timothy Bella.

Congratulations on the book, first and foremost.

It's being called a definitive biography of Barclay.

So in your mind, what classifies a biography as definitive?

For me, Dave, it's all about going back to who and what made Charles Wade Barklington

to the guy we've seen every week on our television sets either as a player or as a broadcaster

for over four decades now.

And for me, it was all about going back to his hometown and Leeds,

Alabama, just outside Birmingham and understanding how this short, fat kid who was raised

by a single mom and his grandma, after his father, he was only 13 months old, at a time when segregation in the schools, what was really tough in the M. Crow South, how that kid became Charles Barkley.

And honestly, Dave, his life could have gotten so many different directions.

But for me, it was all about going back to Leeds, Auburn,

Philadelphia, Phoenix, Houston, and understanding, sure, we hear these sound bites from Chuck every week.

But how did he actually get here?

And I felt now it was really the right time for him because he's got such a big American story, Dave.

You know, Charles Barkley is almost perhaps the only person in our culture who's always been able to pretty much say whatever he thinks and not have it slow down his career a bit or pay a price as so many have to pay prices when they would step out of what the

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