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Charles Barkley Stops Eating For Nobody, Not Even The Prince Of Monaco

When the late Prince Rainier of Monaco puts his fork down, you put your fork down, too. Unless you’re Charles Barkley.

GQ‘s Lang Whitaker just published a fascinating oral history of the 1992 Dream Team, and as usual, Charles Barkley was the biggest source of entertainment.

While in Monte Carlo preparing for the Olympics, the Dream Team got the opportunity to eat dinner with Prince Rainier and Prince Albert. They’re kind of a big deal there, so the team had to follow a strict protocol: don’t start the meal until Prince Rainier does. And stop eating once he drops his fork. But Charles loves his food — as Weight Watchers will have you know — and he wasn’t having it.

“Well, I hope he stops when I’m done eating my meal, because I’m eating my meal.”

There’s no account of the meal itself, so it’s unclear whether Sir Charles got his way. Hopefully the prince was a slow eater, or things may have gotten ugly. He elbowed an innocent Angolan during play later on, so there’s no telling what he could have done to the undoubtedly-smaller prince. Additionally, although he was the team’s leading scorer, “The Round Mound of Rebound” was one of the team’s final selections because some people “wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly… (and) were worried about Barkley.”

To wit: despite winning games by an average 44 points, the players never went out at night in Barcelona, because “it was too hard…you were mobbed.” But one player was brave enough: Barkley. He “loved it,” and took advantage of the nightlife, frequenting “four or five clubs until about six in the morning.” And how’d he defend himself as he walked down Las Ramblas, one of the busiest streets in the world, overrun with pickpockets?

“He’d show you his two fists and say, ‘This is my security.’”

You can see the rest of the storyhere. Oh, and we just got even more excited for The Dream Team documentary this Wednesday.

Finally, if you were wondering, Larry Bird was the quickest autograph-signer on the team. He even beat Jordan, because he’s a winner. So competitive. Just like Kevin Durant. Durant’s totally gonna beat LeBron in autograph-signing in London this year.

[GQ]

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