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Springfield, Massachusetts Charles just wants to be in charge. "I want to be a GM," said Charles Barkley, quote-worthy as usual as he was being inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Friday. "I want the challenge of building a team. I need challenges." What about Barkley's plans to run for governor of Alabama? "That (general manager's job) will be before I'm governor," he said. Barkley was inducted along with Joe Dumars, Dominique Wilkins, Geno Auriemma, Dave Gavitt and Sandro Gamba. According to Barkley, basketball has always been a springboard to a better life and, in his case, a broader platform. The former star of the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, said his famous "I am not a role model" quote of years ago was a prime example of such a launch-pad – even if, according to Barkley – his words were misinterpreted by some as a shirking of responsibility. "All I wanted from that was to start a nationwide debate," said Barkley, who said he had to talk Nike into running the commercial that put the role-model quote into the national spotlight – and made it grist for talk shows and editorialists. "It's what I'm proudest of in my career." That's because, according to Barkley, the minority community had been getting the wrong messages about star athletes for years. And still is. "Not every kid will grow up to be Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone," he said. "We got to get kids to start being interested in getting real jobs. We need them to want to be doctors, lawyers, teachers – we need them to listen to their parents, and we need their parents to do a better job than they're doing." That was the point of the role-model quote, Barkley said. "People are jumping on my bandwagon now," he said. And in fact, if the 43-year-old Barkley eschewed his role-model status a decade ago, he sounded very much willing to accept it now. His social commentary, in fact, is more important to him than basketball, Barkley explained. "My mother and grandmother, they told me, you're going to succeed. I grew up during the civil rights movement in Leeds, Alabama, and it was important to succeed. I feel an obligation to the older blacks who died, got beaten or got the water and police dogs. There's a crisis in the black community today” he said, speaking primarily of youths. "We're killing each other.” As for being a general manager, Barkley said he genuinely wants to do it, as soon as possible. But only on his terms. "I'd only do it for a team that wants to win, and not every team wants to win," he said. "Some just want to make money, no matter what people think. In those cases, I feel sorry for the game, first of all, and for the fans." If Barkley attracted much of the Hall of Fame attention from the NBA side, University of Connecticut women's coach Auriemma was swamped with another pedigree of interest. He recalled taking the job at Storrs, Connecticut – only 60 miles from the Hall of Fame – when the Huskies were an obscure program, and women's basketball was a national afterthought. "As an assistant, you're going to get a really bad job, the one nobody wants," he said. He said he wasn't even the first choice at U-Conn, a program he called "a disaster" in 1985, when Auriemma arrived after serving as an assistant at Virginia. He turned it into the nation's showcase women's program – five national titles since 1995, four of which came during a five-year stretch from 2000-2004. Auriemma said former U-Conn stars Rebecca Lobo and Diana Taurasi should be elected to the Hall of Fame in future years, and he thinks Sue Bird, who has won titles in college, the NBA and the Olympics, might have a chance, too. Born in Italy, Auriemma is one of three foreign-born enshrinees. Wilkins was born in Paris, France. Gamba is an Italian coaching legend, though the 74-year-old said this was his 105th trip to the United States. The American influence on his career he said, was so great that he considers himself "50 percent Italian, and 50 percent American," Three people from foreign countries, and Charles makes four," said Auriemma, who couldn't resists a poke at Barkley's off-the-wall reputation. Barkley didn't let Auriemma off the hook, either. When the U-Conn coach was introduced, it was pointed out that this 589-game winner would reach 600 next season. "Geno might have a sorry team next year, and not get to 600," Barkley said.
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