Charles Barkley, a former teammate of Malone’s on the Philadelphia 76ers, delivered the eulogy. “He was a wonderful man. It was an honor for me to do the eulogy”.
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After that conversation, Barkley began to shave off the pounds and gain playing time. That type of leadership, stand on my case, at the time it was a struggle, but man, I can not believe how lucky I am to number one, have a father figure on my team, but also living in my same building…to keep me moving forward. I will never know why a Hall of Famer took a fat, lazy kid from Auburn and treated him like a son and got him in shape and made him a player. ” ‘Big Mo don’t do ‘deferred.’ You had a deal with my agent”.
There’s been a lot of looking back after Moses Malone passed away from cardiovascular disease on September 13 at the too-soon age of 60. “Everytime I saw him, I called him Dad”. That just hurts me.
“Because of him working with me before and after practice, we developed this kinship”, Barkley told the estimated crowd of 1,200 mourners who’d traveled to Lakewood Church – which was once The Summit, the arena where Malone starred for the Houston Rockets en route to the first two of his three National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player awards – to celebrate Malone’s life and legacy. “He taught me and my brother so much about life, how to love your family, how to react to anybody that came toward you”.
He went on to share a great story of how Malone intercepted Barkley’s pizza deliveries.
That rookie was Charles Barkley. “This means that Moses told ’em he was proud of me”.
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“When the family asked me to speak today, it meant to me, that my “Dad” was proud of me”, Barkley said. This day is bitter and it’s sweet. “Moses holds a special place in our hearts and will forever be remembered as a genuine icon and pillar of the most storied era in the history of Philadelphia 76ers basketball”.
