title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller began work on writing the screenplay for "The Misfits" in 1960, directed by John Huston and starring Monroe. It was during the filming that Miller's and Monroe's relationship hit difficulties, and he later said that the filming was one of the lowest points in his life. Monroe was taking drugs to help her sleep and more drugs to help her wake up, which caused her to arrive on the set late and then have trouble remembering her lines. Huston was unaware that Miller and Monroe were having problems in their private life. He recalled later, "I was impertinent enough to say to Arthur that to allow her to take drugs of any kind was criminal and utterly irresponsible. Shortly after that I realized that she wouldn't listen to Arthur at all; he had no say over her actions."


title: Arthur Miller

text: Shortly before the film's premiere in 1961, Miller and Monroe divorced after five years of marriage. Nineteen months later, on August 5, 1962, Monroe died of a likely drug overdose. Huston, who had also directed her in her first major role in "The Asphalt Jungle" in 1950, and who had seen her rise to stardom, put the blame for her death on her doctors as opposed to the stresses of being a star: "The girl was an addict of sleeping pills and she was made so by the God-damn doctors. It had nothing to do with the Hollywood set-up."


title: Arthur Miller

text: In February 1962, Miller married photographer Inge Morath, who had worked as a photographer documenting the production of "The Misfits". The first of their two children, Rebecca, was born September 15, 1962. Their son Daniel was born with Down syndrome in November 1966. Against his wife's wishes, Miller had him institutionalized, first at a home for infants in New York City, then at the Southbury Training School in Connecticut. Though Morath visited Daniel often, Miller never visited him at the school and rarely spoke of him. Miller and Inge remained together until her death in 2002. Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, is said to have visited Daniel frequently, and to have persuaded Miller to meet with him.


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1952, Elia Kazan appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Kazan named eight members of the Group Theatre, including Clifford Odets, Paula Strasberg, Lillian Hellman, J. Edward Bromberg, and John Garfield, who in recent years had been fellow members of the Communist Party. Miller and Kazan were close friends throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, but after Kazan's testimony to the HUAC, the pair's friendship ended. After speaking with Kazan about his testimony, Miller traveled to Salem, Massachusetts, to research the witch trials of 1692. He and Kazan did not speak to each other for the next ten years. Kazan later defended his own actions through his film "On the Waterfront", in which a dockworker heroically testifies against a corrupt union boss. Miller would retaliate against Kazan's work by writing "A View from the Bridge", a play where a longshoreman outs his co-workers motivated only by jealousy and greed. He sent a copy of the initial script to Kazan and when the director asked in jest to direct the movie, Miller replied "I only sent you the script to let you know what I think of Stool-Pigeons."


title: Arthur Miller

text: In "The Crucible", Miller likened the situation with the House Un-American Activities Committee to the witch hunt in Salem in 1692. The play opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Though widely considered only somewhat successful at the time of its release, today "The Crucible" is Miller's most frequently produced work throughout the world. It was adapted into an opera by Robert Ward in 1961.


title: Arthur Miller

text: The HUAC took an interest in Miller himself not long after "The Crucible" opened, engineering the US State Department's denying him a passport to attend the play's London opening in 1954. When Miller applied in 1956 for a routine renewal of his passport, the House Un-American Activities Committee used this opportunity to subpoena him to appear before the committee. Before appearing, Miller asked the committee not to ask him to name names, to which the chairman, Francis E. Walter (D-PA) agreed. When Miller attended the hearing, to which Monroe accompanied him, risking her own career, he gave the committee a detailed account of his political activities. Reneging on the chairman's promise, the committee demanded the names of friends and colleagues who had participated in similar activities. Miller refused to comply, saying "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." As a result, a judge found Miller guilty of contempt of Congress in May 1957. Miller was sentenced to a fine and a prison sentence, blacklisted, and disallowed a US passport. In August 1958, his conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, which ruled that Miller had been misled by the chairman of the HUAC.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller's experience with the HUAC affected him throughout his life. In the late 1970s, he joined other celebrities (including William Styron and Mike Nichols) who were brought together by the journalist Joan Barthel. Barthel's coverage of the highly publicized Barbara Gibbons murder case helped raise bail for Gibbons' son Peter Reilly, who had been convicted of his mother's murder based on what many felt was a coerced confession and little other evidence. Barthel documented the case in her book "A Death in Canaan", which was made as a television film of the same name and broadcast in 1978. "City Confidential", an A&E Network series, produced an episode about the murder, postulating that part of the reason Miller took such an active interest (including supporting Reilly's defense and using his own celebrity to bring attention to Reilly's plight) was because he had felt similarly persecuted in his run-ins with the HUAC. He sympathized with Reilly, whom he firmly believed to be innocent and to have been railroaded by the Connecticut State Police and the Attorney General who had initially prosecuted the case.


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1964, "After the Fall" was produced, and is said to be a deeply personal view of Miller's experiences during his marriage to Monroe. It reunited Miller with his former friend Kazan; they collaborated on the script and direction. It opened on January 23, 1964 at the ANTA Theatre in Washington Square Park amid a flurry of publicity and outrage at putting a Monroe-like character, Maggie, on stage. Robert Brustein, in a review in the "New Republic", called "After the Fall" "a three and one half hour breach of taste, a confessional autobiography of embarrassing explicitness ... There is a misogynistic strain in the play which the author does not seem to recognize. ... He has created a shameless piece of tabloid gossip, an act of exhibitionism which makes us all voyeurs ... a wretched piece of dramatic writing." That year, Miller produced "Incident at Vichy". In 1965, he was elected the first American president of PEN International, a position which he held for four years. A year later, he organized the 1966 PEN congress in New York City. He also wrote the penetrating family drama "The Price", produced in 1968. It was his most successful play since "Death of a Salesman."


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1968, Miller attended the Democratic National Convention as a delegate for Eugene McCarthy. In 1969, Miller's works were banned in the Soviet Union after he campaigned for the freedom of dissident writers. Throughout the 1970s, he spent much of his time experimenting with the theatre, producing one-act plays such as "Fame" and "The Reason Why", and traveling with his wife, producing "In the Country" and "Chinese Encounters" with her. Both his 1972 comedy "The Creation of the World and Other Business" and its musical adaptation, "Up from Paradise", were critical and commercial failures.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller was an unusually articulate commentator on his own work. In 1978 he published a collection of his "Theater Essays", edited by Robert A. Martin and with a foreword by Miller. Highlights of the collection included Miller's introduction to his "Collected Plays", his reflections on the theory of tragedy, comments on the McCarthy Era, and pieces arguing for a publicly supported theater. Reviewing this collection in the "Chicago Tribune," Studs Terkel remarked, "In reading [the "Theater Essays"]...you are exhilaratingly aware of a social critic, as well as a playwright, who knows what he's talking about."


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1983, Miller traveled to China to produce and direct "Death of a Salesman" at the People's Art Theatre in Beijing. It was a success in China and in 1984, "Salesman in Beijing," a book about Miller's experiences in Beijing, was published. Around the same time, "Death of a Salesman" was made into a TV movie starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman. Shown on CBS, it attracted 25 million viewers. In late 1987, Miller's autobiographical work,


title: Arthur Miller

text: "Timebends", was published. Before it was published, it was well known that Miller would not talk about Monroe in interviews; in "Timebends," he wrote about his experiences with Monroe in detail.


title: Arthur Miller

text: During the early-mid 1990s, Miller wrote three new plays: "The Ride Down Mt. Morgan" (1991), "The Last Yankee" (1992), and "Broken Glass" (1994). In 1996, a film of "The Crucible" starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison and Winona Ryder opened. Miller spent much of 1996 working on the screenplay.


title: Arthur Miller

text: "Mr. Peters' Connections" was staged off-Broadway in 1998, and "Death of a Salesman" was revived on Broadway in 1999 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Once again it was a large critical success, winning a Tony Award for best revival of a play.


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1993, Miller received the National Medal of Arts. He was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist in 1998. In 2001 the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) selected him for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. His lecture, "On Politics and the Art of Acting", analyzed political events (including the U.S. presidential election of 2000)


title: Arthur Miller

text: in terms of the "arts of performance". It drew attacks from some conservatives such as Jay Nordlinger, who called it "a disgrace"; and George Will, who argued that Miller was not a legitimate "scholar".


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1999, Miller received The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life." In 2001, he received the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. On May 1, 2002, he received Spain's Principe de Asturias Prize for Literature as "the undisputed master of modern drama". Later that year, Ingeborg Morath died of lymphatic cancer at the age of 78. The following year Miller won the Jerusalem Prize.


title: Arthur Miller

text: In December 2004, 89-year-old Miller announced that he had been in love with 34-year-old minimalist painter Agnes Barley and had been living with her at his Connecticut farm since 2002, and that they intended to marry. Within hours of her father's death, Rebecca Miller ordered Barley to vacate the premises because she had consistently been opposed to the relationship. Miller's final play, "Finishing the Picture", opened at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, in the fall of 2004, with one character said to be based on Barley. It was reportedly based on his experience during the filming of "The Misfits", though Miller insisted the play was a work of fiction with independent characters that were no more than composite shadows of history.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller died on the evening of February 10, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of "Death of a Salesman") at age 89 of bladder cancer and heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He had been in hospice care at his sister's apartment in New York since his release from hospital the previous month. He was surrounded by Barley, family and friends. His body was interred at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller's writing career spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, he was considered one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to him, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. Per his express wish, it is the only theater in the world that bears his name.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller's letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, "".


title: Arthur Miller

text: The Arthur Miller Foundation was founded to honor the legacy of Miller and his New York City Public School education. Its mission is "Promoting increased access and equity to theater arts education in our schools and increasing the number of students receiving theater arts education as an integral part of their academic curriculum." Its other initiatives include certification of new theater teachers and their placement in public schools, increasing the number of theater teachers in the system from the current estimate of 180 teachers in 1800 schools, supporting professional development of all certified theater teachers, and providing teaching artists, cultural partners, physical spaces, and theater ticket allocations for students. The foundation's primary purpose is to provide arts education in the New York City school system. Its current chancellor is Carmen Farina, a prominent proponent of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Master Arts Council includes Alec Baldwin, Ellen Barkin, Bradley Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Tony Kushner, Julianne Moore, Michael Moore, Liam Neeson, David O. Russell, and Liev Schreiber. Miller's son-in-law, Daniel Day-Lewis, has served on the current board of directors since 2016.


title: Arthur Miller

text: The foundation celebrated Miller's 100th birthday with a one-night performance of his seminal works in November 2015.


title: Arthur Miller

text: The Arthur Miller Foundation currently supports a pilot program in theater and film at the public school Quest to Learn, in partnership with the Institute of Play. The model is being used as an in-school elective theater class and lab. Its objective is to create a sustainable theater education model to disseminate to teachers at professional development workshops.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for "Death of a Salesman", "The Crucible", "All My Sons", and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive, totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.


title: Arthur Miller

text: Christopher Bigsby wrote "Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography" based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement".


title: Arthur Miller

text: In his book "Trinity of Passion", author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946," using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine "The New Masses".


title: Arthur Miller

text: In 1999 the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, "Hitch-22", Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving "The Satanic Verses".


title: Arthur Miller

text: "On Politics and the Art of Acting", Viking 2001 {ISBN 0-670-030-422} an 85-page essay debating the thespian skills, or lack of, in American politics, this soon after the Bush/ Gore election campaign; comparing FDR, JFK, Reagon, Clinton.


title: UFC Rankings

text: Ultimate Fighting Championship rankings, which were introduced in February 2013, are generated by a voting panel made up of media members. These media members are asked to vote for whom they feel are the top fighters in the UFC by weight class and pound-for-pound. A fighter is only eligible to be voted on if they are of active status in the UFC. A fighter can appear in more than one weight division at a time. The champion and interim champion are considered to be in top positions of their respective divisions and therefore are not eligible for voting by weight class. However, the champions can be voted on for the pound-for-pound rankings.


title: Black comedy

text: Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. Writers and comedians often use it as a tool for exploring vulgar issues by provoking discomfort, serious thought, and amusement for their audience. Thus, in fiction, for example, the term "black comedy" can also refer to a genre in which dark humor is a core component. Popular themes of the genre include death, crime, poverty, suicide, war, violence, terrorism, discrimination, disease, racism, sexism, and human sexuality.


title: Black comedy

text: Black comedy differs from both blue comedy—which focuses more on crude topics such as nudity, sex, and Body fluids—and from straightforward obscenity. Whereas the term "black comedy" is a relatively broad term covering humor relating to many serious subjects, "gallows humor" tends to be used more specifically in relation to death, or situations that are reminiscent of dying. Black humor can occasionally be related to the grotesque genre. Literary critics have associated black comedy and black humor with authors as early as the ancient Greeks with Aristophanes.


title: Black comedy

text: The term "black humour" (from the French "humour noir") was coined by the Surrealist theorist André Breton in 1935 while interpreting the writings of Jonathan Swift. Breton's preference was to identify some of Swift's writings as a subgenre of comedy and satire in which laughter arises from cynicism and skepticism, often relying on topics such as death.


title: Black comedy

text: Breton coined the term for his 1940 book "Anthology of Black Humor" ("Anthologie de l'humour noir"), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor (particularly in his pieces "Directions to Servants" (1731), "A Modest Proposal" (1729), "Meditation Upon a Broomstick" (1710), and in a few aphorisms). In his book, Breton also included excerpts from 45 other writers, including both examples in which the wit arises from a victim with which the audience empathizes, as is more typical in the tradition of gallows humor, and examples in which the comedy is used to mock the victim. In the last cases, the victim's suffering is trivialized, which leads to sympathizing with the victimizer, as analogously found in the social commentary and social criticism of the writings of (for instance) Sade.


title: Black comedy

text: Among the first American writers who employed black comedy in their works were Nathanael West and Vladimir Nabokov, although at the time the genre was not widely known in the US. The concept of black humor first came to nationwide attention after the publication of a 1965 mass-market paperback titled "Black Humor", edited by Bruce Jay Friedman. The paperback was one of the first American anthologies devoted to the concept of black humor as a literary genre. With the paperback, Friedman labeled as "black humorists" a variety of authors, such as J. P. Donleavy, Edward Albee, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Vladimir Nabokov, Bruce Jay Friedman himself, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Among the recent writers suggested as black humorists by journalists and literary critics are Roald Dahl, Kurt Vonnegut, Warren Zevon, Christopher Durang, Philip Roth, and Veikko Huovinen. The motive for applying the label black humorist to the writers cited above is that they have written novels, poems, stories, plays, and songs in which profound or horrific events were portrayed in a comic manner. Comedians like Lenny Bruce, who since the late 1950s have been labeled for using "sick comedy" by mainstream journalists, have also been labeled with "black comedy".


title: Black comedy

text: Sigmund Freud, in his 1927 essay "Humour" ("Der Humor"), puts forth the following theory of black comedy: "The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure." Some other sociologists elaborated this concept further. At the same time, Paul Lewis warns that this "relieving" aspect of gallows jokes depends on the context of the joke: whether the joke is being told by the threatened person themselves or by someone else.


title: Black comedy

text: Black comedy has the social effect of strengthening the morale of the oppressed and undermines the morale of the oppressors. According to Wylie Sypher, "to be able to laugh at evil and error means we have surmounted them."


title: Black comedy

text: Black comedy is a natural human instinct and examples of it can be found in stories from antiquity. Its use was widespread in middle Europe, from where it was imported to the United States. It is rendered with the German expression "Galgenhumor" (cynical last words before getting hanged ). The concept of gallows humor is comparable to the French expression "rire jaune" (lit. "yellow laughing"), which also has a Germanic equivalent in the Belgian Dutch expression "groen lachen" (lit. "green laughing").


title: Black comedy

text: Italian comedian Daniele Luttazzi discussed gallows humour focusing on the particular type of laughter that it arouses ("risata verde" or "groen lachen"), and said that grotesque satire, as opposed to ironic satire, is the one that most often arouses this kind of laughter. In the Weimar era "Kabaretts", this genre was particularly common, and according to Luttazzi, Karl Valentin and Karl Kraus were the major masters of it.


title: Black comedy

text: Black comedy is common in professions and environments where workers routinely have to deal with dark subject matter. This includes police officers, firefighters, ambulance crews, military personnel and funeral directors, where it is an acknowledged coping mechanism. It has been encouraged within these professions to make note of the context in which these jokes are told, as outsiders may not react the way that those with mutual knowledge do.


title: Black comedy

text: A 2017 study published in the journal "Cognitive Processing" concludes that people who appreciate dark humor "may have higher IQs, show lower aggression, and resist negative feelings more effectively than people who turn up their noses at it."


title: Black comedy

text: There are multiple recorded instances of humorous last words and final statements. For example, author and playwright Oscar Wilde was destitute and living in a cheap boarding house when he found himself on his deathbed. There are variations on what his exact words were, but his reputed were, "Either that wallpaper goes or I do."


title: Black comedy

text: Military life is full of gallows humor, as those in the services continuously live in the danger of being killed, especially in wartime. For example:


title: Black comedy

text: There are several titles such as "It Only Hurts When I Laugh" and "Only When I Laugh", which allude to the punch line of a joke which exists in numerous versions since at least the 19th century. A typical setup is that someone badly hurt is asked "Does it hurt?" — "I am fine; it only hurts when I laugh."


title: Charles Barkley

text: Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on TNT. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "Chuck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", Barkley played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for three teams. Though shorter than the typical power forward, he used his strength and aggressiveness to become one of the NBA's most dominant rebounders. He was a versatile player who had the ability to score, create plays, and defend. Barkley was an 11-time NBA All-Star, an 11-time member of the All-NBA Team, and the 1993 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP). He was named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams.


title: Charles Barkley

text: An All-American power forward at Auburn University, Barkley was drafted as a junior by the Philadelphia 76ers with the fifth pick of the 1984 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Barkley was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. In the 1986–87 season, Barkley led the league with the highest rebounding average and earned his first NBA rebounding title. He was named the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1991, and in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns, he was voted the league's MVP. He competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games, winning two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national team. In 2000, he retired as the fourth player in NBA history to achieve 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds, and 4,000 assists. Since his retirement, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James have joined the 20K/10K/4K Club. Barkley is a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2006 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team".


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley was popular with the fans and media and made the NBA's All-Interview Team for his last 13 seasons in the league. He was frequently involved in on- and off-court fights and sometimes stirred national controversy, as in March 1991 when he spat on a young girl while attempting to spit at a heckler, and 1993 when he declared that sports figures should not be considered role models. Since retiring as a player, Barkley has had a successful career as an NBA analyst. He works for TNT on "Inside the NBA" alongside Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson as a studio pundit for its coverage of NBA games (for which he has won four Sports Emmy Awards). In addition, Barkley has written several books and has shown an interest in politics.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley was born and raised in Leeds, Alabama, 10 miles outside Birmingham. He was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school. His parents divorced when he was young after his father abandoned the family, which included younger brother Darryl Barkley. His mother remarried and they had a son, John Glenn. Another brother, Rennie, died in infancy. His stepfather was killed in an accident when Charles was 11 years old.


title: Charles Barkley

text: He attended Leeds High School. As a junior, Barkley stood and weighed . He failed to make the varsity team and was named as a reserve. However, during the summer Barkley grew to and earned a starting position on the varsity as a senior. He averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game and led his team to a 26–3 record en route to the state semi-finals. Despite his improvement, Barkley garnered no attention from college scouts until the state high school semi-finals, where he scored 26 points against Alabama's most highly recruited player, Bobby Lee Hurt. An assistant to Auburn University's head coach, Sonny Smith, was at the game and reported seeing, "a fat guy... who can play like the wind". Barkley was soon recruited by Smith and majored in business management while attending Auburn University.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley played collegiate basketball at Auburn for three seasons. Although he struggled to control his weight, he excelled as a player and led the SEC in rebounding each year. He became a popular crowd-pleaser, exciting the fans with dunks and blocked shots that belied his lack of height and overweight frame. It was not uncommon to see the hefty Barkley grab a defensive rebound and, instead of passing, dribble the entire length of the court and finish at the opposite end with a two-handed dunk. His physical size and skills ultimately earned him the nickname "The Round Mound of Rebound" and the "Crisco Kid".


title: Charles Barkley

text: During his college career, Barkley played the center position, despite being shorter than the average center. His height, officially listed as , is stated as in his book, "I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It". He became a member of Auburn's All-Century team and still holds the Auburn record for career field goal percentage with 62.6%. He received numerous awards, including Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year (1984), three All-SEC selections and one Second Team All-American selection. Later, Barkley was named the SEC Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the "Birmingham Post-Herald".


title: Charles Barkley

text: In Barkley's three-year college career, he averaged 14.1 points on 62.6% field goal shooting, 9.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.7 blocks per game. In 1984, he led the Tigers to their first NCAA tournament in school history and finished with 23 points on 80% field goal shooting, 17 rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks. Auburn retired Barkley's No. 34 jersey on March 3, 2001.


title: Charles Barkley

text: He was one of 74 college players invited to the spring tryouts for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team coached by Bob Knight. Barkley made the initial cut in April to the final 20, but was one of four released in May (with John Stockton, Terry Porter, and Maurice Martin) in the penultimate cut to 16 players.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In 2010, Barkley admitted that he asked for, and had been given, money from sports agents during his career at Auburn. Barkley called the sums he had requested from agents as being "chump change", and went on to say, "Why can't an agent lend me some money and I'll pay him back when I graduate?" According to Barkley, he paid back all of the money he had borrowed after signing his first NBA contract.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley left before his final year at Auburn and made himself eligible for the 1984 NBA draft. He was selected with the fifth pick in the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers, two slots after the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. He joined a veteran team that included Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and Maurice Cheeks, players who took Philadelphia to the 1983 NBA championship. Under the tutelage of Malone, Barkley was able to manage his weight and learned to prepare and condition himself properly for a game; Barkley cited Malone as the most influential player of his career, and he often referred to him as "Dad". He averaged 14.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the regular season and earned a berth on the All-Rookie Team. In the postseason, the Sixers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals but were defeated in five games by the Boston Celtics. As a rookie in the postseason, Barkley averaged 14.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.


title: Charles Barkley

text: During his second year, Barkley improved his game under the leadership of Moses Malone during the off-season with his workouts, in the process he became the team's leading rebounder and number two scorer, averaging 20.0 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. He became the Sixers' starting power forward and helped lead his team into the playoffs, averaging 25.0 points on .578 shooting from the field and 15.8 rebounds per game. Despite his efforts, Philadelphia was defeated 4–3 by the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Before the 1986–87 season, Moses Malone was traded to the Washington Bullets and Barkley began to assume control as the team leader. On November 4, 1986, Barkley recorded 34 points, 10 rebounds, and a career-high 14 assists in a 125–121 loss to the Indiana Pacers. On March 20, 1987, Barkley recorded 26 points, 25 rebounds (career-high tying 16 offensive rebounds), and nine assists in a 116–106 win over the Denver Nuggets. He earned his first and only rebounding title, averaging 14.6 rebounds per game and also led the league in offensive rebounds with 5.7 per game. He averaged 23.0 points on .594 shooting, earning his first trip to an NBA All-Star game and All-NBA Second Team honors for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Barkley averaged 24.6 points and 12.6 rebounds in a losing effort, for the second straight year, to the Bucks in a five-game first-round playoff series.


title: Charles Barkley

text: The following season, Julius Erving announced his retirement and Barkley became the Sixers' franchise player. On November 30, 1988, Barkley recorded 41 points, 22 rebounds, five assists, and six steals in a 114–106 win over the Blazers. Playing in 80 games and getting 300 more minutes than his nearest teammate, Barkley had his most productive season, averaging 28.3 points on .587 shooting and 11.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in his second All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA First Team for the first time in his career. His celebrity status as the Sixers' franchise player led to his first appearance on the cover of "Sports Illustrated". For the first time since the 1974–75 season, however, the 76ers failed to make the playoffs. In the 1988–89 season, Barkley continued to play well, averaging 25.8 points on .579 shooting and 12.5 rebounds per game. He earned his third straight All-Star Game appearance and was named to the All-NBA First team for the second straight season. Despite Barkley contributing 27.0 points on .644 shooting, 11.7 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game, the 76ers were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Knicks.


title: Charles Barkley

text: During the 1989–90 season, despite receiving more first-place votes, Barkley finished second in MVP voting behind the Los Angeles Lakers' Magic Johnson. He was named Player of the Year by "The Sporting News" and "Basketball Weekly". He averaged 25.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and a career-high .600 shooting. He was named to the All-NBA First Team for the third consecutive year and earned his fourth All-Star selection. He helped Philadelphia win 53 regular-season games, only to lose to the Chicago Bulls in a five-game Eastern Conference Semi-finals series. Barkley averaged 24.7 points and 15.5 rebounds in another postseason loss. His exceptional play continued into his seventh season, where he averaged 27.6 points on .570 shooting and 10.1 rebounds per game. His fifth straight All-Star Game appearance proved to be his best yet. He led the East to a 116–114 win over the West with 17 points and 22 rebounds, the most rebounds in an All-Star Game since Wilt Chamberlain recorded 22 in 1967. Barkley was presented with Most Valuable Player honors at the All-Star Game and, at the end of the season, named to the All-NBA First Team for the fourth straight year. That year, when the "New York Times" asked the San Antonio Spurs center David Robinson if he would choose Barkley or Jordan for his side in a hypothetical pickup game, Robinson said, "I would pick Barkley. When he is on his game, I think he has the biggest impact ever." In the playoffs, Philadelphia lost again to Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals, with Barkley contributing 24.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.


title: Charles Barkley

text: The 1991–92 season was Barkley's final year in Philadelphia. In his last season, he wore number 32 instead of his 34 to honor Magic Johnson, who had announced prior to the start of the season that he was HIV-positive. Although the 76ers had initially retired the number 32 in honor of Billy Cunningham, it was unretired, with Cunningham's approval, for Barkley to wear. Following Johnson's announcement, Barkley also apologized for having made light of his condition. Responding to concerns that players may contract HIV by contact with Johnson, Barkley stated, "We're just playing basketball. It's not like we're going out to have unprotected sex with Magic."


title: Charles Barkley

text: In his final season with the Sixers, averaging 23.1 points on .552 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, Barkley earned his sixth straight All-Star appearance and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh straight appearance on either the first or second team. He ended his 76ers career ranked fourth in team history in total points (14,184), third in scoring average (23.3 ppg), third in rebounds (7,079), eighth in assists (2,276) and second in field-goal percentage (.576). He led Philadelphia in rebounding and field-goal percentage for seven consecutive seasons and in scoring for six straight years. However, Barkley demanded a trade out of Philadelphia after the Sixers failed to make the postseason with a 35–47 record. Barkley was initially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before the end of the season, but the 76ers wound up retracting their deal a few hours later. On July 17, 1992, he was officially traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.


title: Charles Barkley

text: During Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia, he became a household name and was one of the few NBA players to have an action figure produced by Kenner's Starting Lineup toy line. He also had his own signature shoe line with Nike. His outspoken and aggressive play, however, resulted in some on-court incidents, notoriously a fight with Detroit Pistons center Bill Laimbeer in 1990, which drew a record total $162,500 fine.


title: Charles Barkley

text: On March 26, 1991, during a game versus the New Jersey Nets, Barkley attempted to spit on a fan who was allegedly heckling with racial slurs, but the result was his spit hitting a young girl. Rod Thorn, the NBA's president of operations at the time, suspended Barkley, without pay, for one game and fined him $10,000 for spitting and verbally abusing the fan. It became a national story and Barkley was vilified for it. Barkley, however, eventually developed a friendship with the girl and her family. He apologized and, among other things, provided them tickets to future games.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Upon retirement, Barkley was later quoted as stating, in regard to his career, "I was fairly controversial, I guess, but I regret only one thing—the spitting incident. But you know what? It taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that I was getting way too intense during the game. It let me know I wanted to win way too bad. I had to calm down. I wanted to win at all costs. Instead of playing the game the right way and respecting the game, I only thought about winning."


title: Charles Barkley

text: The trade to Phoenix in the 1992–93 season went well for both Barkley and the Suns. In his first game with the Suns, Barkley almost recorded a triple-double after racking up 37 points, 21 rebounds (12 of which were offensive rebounds) and 8 assists in a 111–105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. He averaged 25.6 points on .520 shooting, 12.2 rebounds and a career high 5.1 assists per game, leading the Suns to an NBA best 62–20 record. For his efforts, Barkley won the league's Most Valuable Player Award, and was selected to play in his seventh straight All-Star Game. He became the third player ever to win league MVP honors in the season immediately after being traded, established multiple career highs and led Phoenix to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1976. Despite Barkley's proclamation to Jordan that it was "destiny" for the Suns to win the title, they were defeated in six games by the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 26.6 points and 13.6 rebounds per game during the whole postseason, including 27.3 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game throughout the championship series. In the fourth game of the Finals, Barkley recorded a triple-double after collecting 32 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.


title: Charles Barkley

text: As a result of severe back pains, Barkley began to speculate that the 1993–94 season would be his last in Phoenix. Playing through the worst injury problems of his career, Barkley managed 21.6 points on .495 shooting and 11.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to his eighth consecutive All-Star Game, but did not play because of a torn right quadriceps tendon, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team. With Barkley fighting injuries, the Suns still managed a 56–26 record and made it to the Western Conference Semifinals. Despite holding a 2–0 lead in the series, the Suns lost in seven games to the eventual champions, the Houston Rockets, who were led by Hakeem Olajuwon. Despite his injuries, in Game 3 of a first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, Barkley hit 23 of 31 field-goal attempts and finished with 56 points, the then-third-highest total ever in a playoff game. After contemplating retirement in the off-season, Barkley returned for his eleventh season and continued to battle injuries. He struggled during the first half of the season, but managed to gradually improve, earning his ninth consecutive appearance in the All-Star Game. He averaged 23 points on .486 shooting and 11.1 rebounds per game, while leading the Suns to a 59–23 record. In the playoffs, despite having a 3–1 lead in the series, the Suns once again lost to the defending and eventual two-time champion Houston Rockets in seven games. Barkley averaged 25.7 points on .500 shooting and 13.4 rebounds per game in the postseason, but was limited in Game 7 of the semi-finals by a leg injury.


title: Charles Barkley

text: The 1995–96 season was Barkley's last with the Phoenix Suns. He led the team in scoring, rebounds and steals, averaging 23.3 points on .500 shooting, 11.6 rebounds and a career high .777 free throw shooting. He earned his tenth appearance in an All-Star Game as the top vote-getter among Western Conference players and posted his 18th career triple-double on November 22. He also became just the tenth player in NBA history to reach 20,000 points and 10,000 rebounds in their career. In the postseason, Barkley averaged 25.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in a four-game first round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs. After the Suns closed out the season with a 41–41 record and a first-round playoff loss, Barkley was traded to Houston in exchange for Sam Cassell, Robert Horry, Mark Bryant, and Chucky Brown.


title: Charles Barkley

text: During his career with the Suns, Barkley excelled, earning All-NBA and All-Star honors in each of his four seasons.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Throughout his career, Barkley argued that athletes should not be considered role models. He stated, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models?" In 1993, his argument prompted national news when he wrote the text for his "I am not a role model" Nike commercial. Dan Quayle, the former Vice President of the United States, called it a "family-values message" for Barkley's oft-ignored call for parents and teachers to quit looking to him to "raise your kids" and instead be role models themselves.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley's message sparked a great public debate about the nature of role models. He argued: I think the media demands that athletes be role models because there's some jealousy involved. It's as if they say, this is a young black kid playing a game for a living and making all this money, so we're going to make it tough on him. And what they're really doing is telling kids to look up to someone they can't become, because not many people can be like we are. Kids can't be like Michael Jordan.


title: Charles Barkley

text: The trade to the Houston Rockets in the 1996–97 season was Barkley's last chance at capturing an NBA championship title. He joined a veteran team that included two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. To begin the season, Barkley was suspended for the season opener and fined $5,000 for fighting Charles Oakley during an October 25, 1996 preseason game. After Oakley committed a flagrant foul on Barkley, Barkley responded by shoving Oakley. In his first game with the Houston Rockets, Charles Barkley had a career-high 33 rebounds. He continued to battle injuries throughout the season and played only 53 games, missing 14 because of a laceration and bruise on his left pelvis, 11 because of a sprained right ankle, and four due to suspensions. He became the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 19.2 points on .484 shooting; the first time since his rookie year that he averaged below 20 points per game. With Olajuwon taking most of the shots, Barkley focused primarily on rebounding, averaging 13.5 per game, the second-best in his career. The Rockets ended the regular season with a 57–25 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they were defeated in six games by the Utah Jazz. Barkley averaged 17.9 points and 12.0 rebounds per game in another postseason loss.


title: Charles Barkley

text: The 1997–98 season was another injury-plagued year for Barkley. He averaged 15.2 points on .485 shooting and 11.7 rebounds per game. The Rockets ended the season with a 41–41 record and were eliminated in five games by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Limited by injuries, Barkley played four games in the series and averaged career lows of 9.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 21.8 minutes per game. During the lockout-shortened season, Barkley played 42 regular-season games and managed 16.1 points on .478 shooting and 12.3 rebounds per game. He became the second player in NBA history, following Wilt Chamberlain, to accumulate 23,000 points, 12,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in his career. The Rockets concluded the shortened season with a 31–19 record and advanced to the playoffs. In his last postseason appearance, Barkley averaged 23.5 points on .529 shooting and 13.8 rebounds per game in a first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. He concluded his postseason career averaging 23 points on .513 shooting, 12.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in 123 games.


title: Charles Barkley

text: The 1999–2000 season was Barkley's final year in the NBA. Initially, Barkley averaged 14.5 points on .477 shooting and 10.5 rebounds per game. Along with Shaquille O'Neal, Barkley was ejected from a November 10, 1999 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. After O'Neal blocked a layup by Barkley, O'Neal shoved Barkley, who then threw the ball at O'Neal. Barkley's season and career seemingly ended prematurely at the age of 36 after rupturing his left quadriceps tendon on December 8, 1999, in Philadelphia, where his career began. Refusing to allow his injury to be the last image of his career, Barkley returned after four months for one final game. On April 19, 2000, in a home game against the Vancouver Grizzlies, Barkley scored a memorable basket on an offensive rebound and putback, a common trademark during his career. He accomplished what he set out to do after being activated from the injured list, and walked off the court to a standing ovation. He stated, "I can't explain what tonight meant. I did it for me. I've won and lost a lot of games, but the last memory I had was being carried off the court. I couldn't get over the mental block of being carried off the court. It was important psychologically to walk off the court on my own." After the basket, Barkley immediately retired and concluded his sixteen-year Hall of Fame career.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley was invited by Bob Knight to try out for United States men's basketball team for the 1984 Summer Olympics. He made it all the way to final cuts, but was not selected for the team, despite outplaying almost all of the front-court players there. According to Knight, Barkley was cut because of poor defense.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games and won two gold medals as a member of the United States men's basketball team. International rules that previously prevented NBA players from playing in the Olympics were changed in 1992, allowing Barkley and fellow NBA players to compete in the Olympics for the first time. The team was nicknamed the "Dream Team" and went 6–0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament and 8–0 against Olympic opponents. The team averaged an Olympic record 117.3 points a game and won games by an average of 43.8 points, only surpassed by the 1956 U.S. Olympic team. Barkley led the team with 18.0 points on 71.1% field goal shooting and set a then-Olympic single-game scoring record with 30 points in a 127–83 victory over Brazil. He also set a U.S. Men's Olympic record for highest three-point field goal percentage with 87.5% and added 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game. During the game Angola, Barkley elbowed Herlander Coimbra in the chest and was unapologetic after the game, claiming he was hit first. Barkley was called for an intentional foul on the play. Coimbra's resulting free throw was the only point scored by Angola during a 46–1 run by the U.S.


title: Charles Barkley

text: At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games, Barkley led the team in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage. He averaged 12.4 points on 81.6% field goal shooting, setting a U.S. Men's Olympic record. In addition, he also contributed 6.6 rebounds per game. Under Barkley's leadership, the team once again compiled a perfect 8–0 record and captured gold medal.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley played the power forward position, but occasionally played small forward and center. He was known for his unusual build as a basketball player, stockier than most small forwards, yet shorter than most power forwards he faced. However, Barkley was still capable of outplaying both taller and quicker opponents because of his unusual combination of strength and agility.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley was a prolific scorer who averaged 22.1 points per game during the regular season for his career and 23.0 points per game in the playoffs for his career. Barkley was an incredibly efficient offensive force, leading the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage every season from the 1986–87 season to the 1990–91 season. He led the league in effective field goal percentage in both the 1986–87 and 1987–88 seasons as well, and also led the league in offensive rating in both the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons. He was one of the NBA's most versatile players and accurate scorers capable of scoring from anywhere on the court and established himself as one of the NBA's premier clutch players. During his NBA career, Barkley was a constant mismatch because he possessed a set of very uncommon skills and could play in a variety of positions. He would use all facets of his game in a single play; as a scorer, he had the ability to score from the perimeter and the post, using an array of spin moves and fadeaways, or finishing a fast break with a powerful dunk. He was one of the most efficient scorers of all-time, scoring at 54.13% total field goal percentage for his season career and 51.34% total field goal shooting for his playoff career (including a career-high season average of 60% during the 1989–90 NBA season).


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley is the shortest player in NBA history to lead the league in rebounding when he averaged a career-high 14.6 rebounds per game during the 1986–87 season. His tenacious and aggressive form of play built into an undersized frame that fluctuated between and helped cement his legacy as one of the greatest rebounders in NBA history, averaging 11.7 rebounds per game in the regular season for his career and 12.9 rebounds per game in his playoff career and totaling 12,546 rebounds for his season career. Barkley topped the NBA in offensive rebounding for three straight years and was most famous among very few power forwards who could control a defensive rebound, dribble the length of the court and finish at the rim with a powerful dunk.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley also possessed considerable defensive talents led by an aggressive demeanor, foot speed and his capacity to read the floor to anticipate for steals, a reason why he established his career as the second All-Time leader in steals for the power forward position and leader of the highest all-time steal per game average for the power forward position. Despite being undersized for both the small forward and power forward positions, he also finished among the all-time leaders in blocked shots. His speed and leaping ability made him one of the few power forwards capable of running down court to block a faster player with a chase-down block.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In a "SLAM" magazine issue ranking NBA greats, Barkley was ranked among the top 20 players of All-Time. In the magazine, NBA Hall-of-Famer Bill Walton commented on Barkley's ability. Walton stated, "Barkley is like Magic [Johnson] and Larry [Bird] in that they don't really play a position. He plays everything; he plays basketball. There is nobody who does what Barkley does. He's a dominant rebounder, a dominant defensive player, a three-point shooter, a dribbler, a playmaker."


title: Charles Barkley

text: During his 16-year NBA career, Barkley was regarded as one of the most controversial, outspoken and dominating players in the history of basketball. His impact on the sport went beyond his rebounding titles, assists, scoring and physical play. His confrontational mannerisms often led to technical fouls and fines on the court, and his larger than life persona sometimes gave rise to national controversy off of it, such as when he was featured in ads that rejected pro athletes as role models and declared, "I am not a role model." Although his words often led to controversy, according to Barkley his mouth was never the cause because it always spoke the truth. He stated, "I don't create controversies. They're there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention."


title: Charles Barkley

text: Besides his on-court fights with other players, he has exhibited confrontational behavior off-court. He was arrested for breaking a man's nose during a fight after a game with the Milwaukee Bucks and also for throwing a man through a plate-glass window in Orlando, after being struck with a glass of ice. Barkley continues to be popular with the fans and media.


title: Charles Barkley

text: As a player, Barkley was a perennial All-Star who earned league MVP honors in 1993. He employed a physical style of play that earned him the nicknames "Sir Charles" and "The Round Mound of Rebound". He was named to the All-NBA team eleven times and earned two gold medals as a member of the United States Olympic Basketball team. He led both teams in scoring and was instrumental in helping the 1992 "Dream Team" and 1996 Men's Basketball team compile a perfect 16–0 record. He retired as one of only four players in NBA history to record at least 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists in their career. In 1996, Barkley, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary, was honored as one of the 50 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In recognition of his collegiate and NBA achievements, Barkley's number 34 jersey was officially retired by Auburn University on March 3, 2001. In the same month, the Philadelphia 76ers also officially retired Barkley's number 34 jersey. On March 20, 2004, the Phoenix Suns honored Barkley as well by including him in the "Suns Ring of Honor". In recognition of his achievements as a player, Barkley was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. In October 2021, as part of the NBA's 75th Anniversary, Barkley was honored as one of the 75 greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Most free throw attempts in a 7-game series: 100, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals


title: Charles Barkley

text: Most turnovers in a 7-game series: 37, Philadelphia 76ers vs. Milwaukee Bucks, 1986 Eastern Conference Semi-finals


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley married Maureen Blumhardt in 1989, and in the same year, the couple had a daughter named Christiana.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley's daughter was named after the Christiana Mall in Delaware. In a 2021 podcast, he explained, "...I just liked the mall." A DNA test read by George Lopez on "Lopez Tonight" revealed Barkley to be of 14% Native American, 11% European, and 75% African descent.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Since 2000, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT). He appears on the network's NBA coverage during pre-game and halftime shows, in addition to special NBA events. He also occasionally works as an onsite game analyst. He is part of the crew on "Inside the NBA", a post-game show during which Barkley, Ernie Johnson Jr., Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal recap and comment on NBA games that have occurred during the day and also on general NBA affairs. Barkley has won four Sports Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" for his work on TNT.


title: Charles Barkley

text: During the broadcast of a game, in which Barkley was courtside with Marv Albert, Barkley poked fun at NBA official Dick Bavetta's age. Albert replied to Barkley, "I believe Dick would beat you in a footrace." In response to that remark, Barkley went on to challenge Bavetta to a race at the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend for $5,000. The winner was to choose a charity to which the money would be donated. The NBA agreed to pitch in an additional $50,000, and TNT threw in $25,000. The pair raced for three and a half lengths of the basketball court until Barkley ultimately won. After the event, the two kissed in a show of good sportsmanship.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Additionally, since 2011, Barkley has served as a studio analyst for the joint coverage of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament between Turner Sports and CBS. Barkley has broadcast every Final Four since 2011.


title: Charles Barkley

text: He also served as a guest commentator for NBC's coverage of the NFL Wild Card playoffs on January 7, 2012; the same night he hosted "Saturday Night Live", which is taped next door to the "Football Night in America" studio in Manhattan's GE Building.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley announced in November 2012 that he was contemplating retirement from broadcasting. "[N]ow I'm like, 'Dude, you have been doing this for 13 years and if I make it to the end of the contract, it will be 17 years.' Seventeen years is a long time. It's a lifetime in broadcasting. I personally have to figure out the next challenge for me", he said. After repeating that he planned to retire in 2016, he signed another contract with Turner Sports. He later said that he wants to retire when he is 60 in 2023.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In July 2016, it was announced that Barkley will host a six-episode unscripted show called "The Race Card". The show was renamed to "American Race", and premiered on TNT on May 11, 2017.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In October 2022, Barkley signed a 10-year contract extension with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, owner of TNT, which will see him remain as a host on "Inside the NBA" for the foreseeable future.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley is known for his compulsive gambling. In a 2007 interview with ESPN's Trey Wingo, Barkley revealed that he had lost approximately $10 million through gambling. In addition, he also admitted to losing $2.5 million "in a six-hour period" while playing blackjack. Although Barkley openly admits to his problem, he claims it is not serious since he can afford to support the habit. When approached by fellow TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson about the issue, Barkley replied, "It's not a problem. If you're a drug addict or an alcoholic, those are problems. I gamble for too much money. As long as I can continue to do it I don't think it's a problem. Do I think it's a bad habit? Yes, I think it's a bad habit. Am I going to continue to do it? Yes, I'm going to continue to do it."


title: Charles Barkley

text: Despite suffering big losses, Barkley also claims to have won on several occasions. During a trip to Las Vegas, he claims to have won $700,000 from playing blackjack and betting on the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. He went on to state, however, "No matter how much I win, it ain't a lot. It's only a lot when I lose. And you always lose. I think it's fun, I think it's exciting. I'm gonna continue to do it, but I have to get to a point where I don't try to break the casino 'cause you never can."


title: Charles Barkley

text: In May 2008, the Wynn Las Vegas casino filed a civil complaint against Barkley, alleging that he failed to pay a $400,000 debt stemming from October 2007. Barkley responded by taking blame for letting time lapse on the repayment of the debt and promptly paid the casino. After repaying his debt, Barkley stated during a pregame show on TNT, "I've got to stop gambling...I am not going to gamble anymore. For right now, the next year or two, I'm not going to gamble... Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it."


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley began playing golf during his NBA career, later staying with the sport as it was a way to remain in competition after his basketball career ended. He is a regular competitor at the American Century Championship pro-am tournament, regularly finishing near the bottom of the leaderboard. He is widely regarded as a poor golfer with a particularly bad swing; he later underwent training to improve his swing, which led to an improved performance in the 2021 American Century Championship.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley participated in "Champions for Change", the third iteration of "The Match". As part of a team with Phil Mickelson, Barkley pulled off a major upset defeating Peyton Manning and Stephen Curry by a score of 4–3.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley spoke for many years of his Republican Party affiliation. In 1995, he considered running as a Republican candidate for Alabama's governorship in the 1998 election. However, in 2006, he altered his political stance, stating "I was a Republican until they lost their minds." At a July 2006 meeting of the Southern Regional Conference of the National School Boards Association in Destin, Florida, Barkley lent credence to the idea of running for Governor of Alabama, stating: I'm serious. I've got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that's not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration... When I run—if I run—we're going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In September 2006, Barkley once again reiterated his desire to run for governor. He noted, "I can't run until 2014 ... I have to live there for seven years, so I'm looking for a house there as we speak." In July 2007, he made a video declaring his support for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. In September 2007, during a broadcast on Monday Night Football, Barkley announced that he bought a house in Alabama to satisfy residency requirements for a 2014 campaign for governor. In addition, Barkley declared himself an Independent and not a Democrat as previously reported. "The Republicans are full of it", Barkley said, "The Democrats are a little less full of it."


title: Charles Barkley

text: In February 2008, Barkley announced that he would be running for Governor of Alabama in 2014 as an Independent. On October 27, 2008, he officially announced his candidacy for Governor of Alabama in an interview with CNN, stating that he planned to run in the 2014 election cycle, but he began to back off the idea in a November 24, 2009 interview on "The Jay Leno Show". In 2010, he confirmed that he was not running in 2014. In August 2015, Barkley announced his support for Republican John Kasich in the 2016 presidential election. On Lance Armstrong's podcast in 2019, he confirmed that he would not be running for office.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley supports gay rights. In 2006, he told Fox Sports: "I'm a big advocate of gay marriage. If they want to get married, God bless them." Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN two years later, he said: "Every time I hear the word 'conservative,' it makes me sick to my stomach, because they're really just fake Christians, as I call them. That's all they are. ... I think they want to be judge and jury. Like, I'm for gay marriage. It's none of my business if gay people want to get married. I'm pro-choice. And I think these Christians, first of all, they're not supposed to judge other people. But they're the most hypocritical judge of people we have in the country. And it bugs the hell out of me. They act like they're Christians. They're not forgiving at all." During a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day double-header on TNT, Barkley responded to a statement made by Dr. King's daughter Bernice, by saying, "People try to make it about black and white. [But] he talked about equality for every man, every woman. We have a thing going on now, people discriminating against homosexuality in this country. I love the homosexuality people. God bless the gay people. They are great people."


title: Charles Barkley

text: Commenting on the Ferguson unrest, Barkley called the Ferguson looters "scumbags", praised the police officers who work in black neighborhoods, and said that he supports the decision made by the grand jury not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the Michael Brown shooting. Previously, in 2013, Barkley expressed his agreement with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In 2014, when Barkley was asked about the rumor that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was being accused for not being "black enough" on the radio show "Afternoons" with Anthony and Rob Ellis, he said:


title: Charles Barkley

text: Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out. One of the reasons we're never going to be successful as a whole, because of other black people. And for some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person. And it's a dirty, dark secret. There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success. It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful... We're the only ethnic group who say, 'Hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' It's just typical BS that goes on when you're black, man.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley has also been known as a critic of President Donald Trump from as early as his Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Before Trump won the Republican primaries that year, Barkley stated his disgust towards the words and messages that Trump was promoting throughout the presidential race. In September 2017, when President Trump called out former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick for his kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem during the 2016 NFL season, Barkley expressed his complete disappointment in President Trump (however, Barkley has stated that he does not support athletes kneeling during the National Anthem as a form of protest). In December 2017, Barkley mocked President Trump's tax bill, stating "Thank you Republicans, I knew I could always count on y’all to take care of us rich people, us one percenters. Sorry, poor people. I’m hoping for y’all, but y’all ain’t got no chance."


title: Charles Barkley

text: In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated:


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley supported Democrat Doug Jones in the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama. During Alabama's Senate election, Barkley noted that Jones' competitor, Roy Moore, was a complete embarrassment to the state.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In an interview with Brandon 'Scoop B' Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast, Barkley said if he ruled the world for one day, he would get rid of both Republicans and Democrats because "They're both awful", adding: “They fight all of the time like little kids."


title: Charles Barkley

text: In 1991, Barkley and sportswriter Roy S. Johnson collaborated on the autobiographical work "Outrageous". Editorial choices made by Johnson in the book led to Barkley famously quipping that he had been misquoted in his own autobiography. In 2000, Barkley wrote the foreword for "Sports Illustrated" columnist Rick Reilly's book "The Life of Reilly". In it, Barkley quipped, "Of all the people in sports I'd like to throw through a plate glass window, Reilly's not one of them. It's a shame though, skinny white boys look "real" aerodynamic." In 2002, Barkley released the book "I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It", which included editing and commentary by close friend Michael Wilbon. Three years later, Barkley released "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man?", which is a collection of interviews with leading figures in entertainment, business, sports, and government. Michael Wilbon also contributed to this book and was present at many of the interviews.


title: Charles Barkley

text: He played himself in the 1996 film "Space Jam". He made a brief appearance in the TV series "Suits", in episode 3 of the fifth season. He also appeared in the eighth season of "Modern Family". He also voices animated versions of himself in "" and "We Bare Bears". In 2019, he appeared in "The Piña Colada Song" episode of "The Goldbergs" as a gym teacher and alien conspiracy theorist briefly trained as a prospective replacement for the departing Coach Mellor. Barkley hosted "Saturday Night Live" on four separate occasions between 1993 and 2018.


title: Charles Barkley

text: On December 31, 2008, Barkley was pulled over in Scottsdale, Arizona for running a stop sign. The officer smelled alcohol on Barkley's breath and proceeded to administer field sobriety tests, which he failed. He was arrested on drunk driving charges and had his vehicle impounded. Barkley refused to submit a breath test and was given a blood test. He was then cited and released. Gilbert police noted Barkley was cooperative and respectful during the entire incident, adding that he was treated no differently than anyone arrested on DUI charges. The police report of the incident stated that Barkley told the police he was in a hurry to receive oral sex from his female passenger when he ran through a stop sign early Wednesday. Test results released by the police showed that Barkley had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona. Two months after his arrest, Barkley pleaded guilty to two DUI-related counts and one count of running a red light. He was sentenced to ten days in jail and fined $2,000. The sentence was later reduced to three days after Barkley entered an alcohol treatment program.


title: Charles Barkley

text: As part of the fallout of his arrest, Barkley took a two-month from his commentating duties for TNT. During his absence, T-Mobile elected not to air previously scheduled ads that featured Barkley, stating, "Given the recent developments, for the time being, we've replaced TV ads featuring Mr. Barkley with more general-market advertising." On February 19, 2009, Barkley returned to TNT and spent the first segment of the NBA pregame show discussing the incident and his experiences. Shortly after his return, T-Mobile once again began airing ads featuring Barkley.


title: Charles Barkley

text: In 2011, Barkley became a spokesman for WeightWatchers, promoting their "Lose Like a Man" program and appearing in both television and online ads.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley has been featured in several video games. "Barkley Shut Up and Jam!" is a basketball video game which was developed by Accolade. It was released for the Super NES and the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994, and was followed up by a sequel for only the Genesis in 1995. An unofficial sequel to the initial game called "" was developed and published in 2008. The game was developed by Tales of Game's Studios and was a departure from the first game in that the game was a traditional style JRPG.


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley features in EA Sports starting with "Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs" in 1991, but by the late 1990s did not appear due to licensing reasons. Barkley was added to the Houston Rockets team in the game "Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside".


title: Charles Barkley

text: Barkley was featured in "NBA 2K13" as part of the 1992 Olympic "Dream Team". Barkley also had the same role in "NBA 2K17".


title: Charles Barkley

text: The NBA2K series includes the TNT team of Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith providing each match with pre-match analysis; however, Barkley opts not to join his fellow team members in protest at the 2K series not paying the NBPA any residuals. This boycott also means Barkley is not included in the game as a legendary player as part of any All-Time team.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The Three-Body Problem () is a science fiction novel written by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The title refers to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics. It is the first novel of the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" () trilogy, but the whole series is often referred to as "The Three-Body Problem". The trilogy's second and third novels are "The Dark Forest" and "Death's End," respectively.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The first volume of "The Three-Body Problem" was originally serialized in "Science Fiction World" in 2006 and published as a standalone book in 2008, becoming one of the most successful Chinese science fiction novels of the last two decades. The novel received the Chinese Science Fiction Yinhe ("Galaxy") Award in 2006 along with many more over the years. By 2015, a Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. Thereafter, it became the first Asian novel ever to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The series portrays a fictional past, present and future where, in the first book, Earth encounters an alien civilisation in a nearby star system that consists of three solar-type stars orbiting each other in an unstable three-body system.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The author, Liu Cixin, was born in Beijing in June 1963. He was an engineer before writing science fiction. In 1989 he wrote "Supernova Era" and "China 2185", but neither book were published at that time. Liu's first published short story, "Whalesong", was published in "Science Fiction World" in June 1999. In the same year his novel "With Her Eyes" won the Galaxy Award. In 2000 he wrote "The Wandering Earth" and received the Galaxy Award again. The Wandering Earth was adapted into a film in 2019. When the short story "Mountain" appeared in January 2006, many readers wrote that they hoped he would write a novel. Therefore, he decided to concentrate on novel-length texts rather than on short stories. The other two famous novels besides "The Three-Body Problem" series are "Supernova Era" and "Ball Lightning". When he was not otherwise busy, he wrote three to five thousand words a day, and each of his books took about one year to complete.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: In 2012, Chinese-American science-fiction author Ken Liu and translator Joel Martinsen were commissioned by the China Educational Publications Import and Export Corporation (CEPIEC) to produce an English translation of "The Three-Body Problem", with Liu translating the first and last volumes, and Martinsen translating the second volume"." In 2013, it was announced that the series would be published by Tor in the United States, and by Head of Zeus in the United Kingdom.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Liu and Martinsen's translation of the novels contains footnotes explaining references to Chinese history that may be unfamiliar to international audiences. There are also some changes in the order of the chapters for the first volume. In the translated version chapters which take place during the Cultural Revolution appear at the beginning of the novel, rather than in middle, as they were serialized in 2006 and also as they appeared in the standalone version of the novel published in 2008. According to the author, these chapters had originally been intended as the opening, but were moved by his publishers to avoid attracting the attention of government censors.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: During the Cultural Revolution, Ye Wenjie, an astrophysics graduate from Tsinghua University, witnesses her father get beaten to death during a struggle session by Red Guards from Tsinghua High School, who were supported by Ye's mother and younger sister. Ye is officially branded a traitor and is forced to join a labor brigade in Inner Mongolia, where she befriends a government journalist who enlists Ye's help in transcribing a letter to the government. The letter details policy suggestions based on the book "Silent Spring", which Ye read. However, the journalist betrays Ye, who is sentenced to prison after the letter is viewed as seditious by the government. In prison, Ye is recruited by Yang Weining and Lei Zhicheng, two military physicists working under Red Coast, a secret Chinese initiative to use high-powered radio waves to damage spy satellites.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: After working with them for some time, she learns that the stated purpose is a front for Red Coast's true intention: the search for extraterrestrial life. Ye discovers the possibility of amplifying outgoing radio waves by using microwave cavities within the sun and sends an interstellar message. Eight years later, now in a loveless marriage with Yang, Ye receives a message from a concerned alien pacifist from the planet Trisolaris, warning her not to respond or else the inhabitants of Trisolaris will find and invade Earth. The alien describes Trisolaris's environmental conditions and societal history. Disillusioned by the political chaos and having come to despise humankind, Ye responds anyway, inviting them to come to Earth to settle its problems. She murders Yang and Lei to keep the alien message secret.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Some time later, with the end of the Cultural Revolution and Ye's return to Tsinghua as a professor, Ye encounters Mike Evans, a hermit and the son of the CEO of the world's largest oil company. Evans is also a radical environmentalist and antispeciesist. Seeing that Evans is direly angry at humanity as well, Ye confides in him and tells him about the events at Red Coast. Evans uses his inherited financial power to hire men and purchases a giant ship – Judgement Day – which he converts into a mobile colony and listening post. Upon receiving messages from Trisolaris, validating Ye's story, Evans announces the creation of the militant and semi-secret Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO) as a fifth column for Trisolaris and appoints Ye its leader. According to the messages, the Trisolaran invasion force has departed, but will not reach Earth for 450 years.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The society attracts numerous scientists, minor government officials, and other educated people who are disappointed with world affairs. They assemble a private army and build small nuclear weapons. However, Evans retains control of most resources and starts to alter and withhold alien messages from Ye and others. Furthermore, the society splits into factions, with the Adventists (led by Evans) seeking complete destruction of humanity by the Trisolarans, and the Redemptionists (led by Shen Yufei) seeking to help the Trisolarans to find a computational solution to the three-body problem, which plagues their planet. A third, smaller faction, the Survivors, intend to help the Trisolarans in exchange for their own descendants' lives while the rest of humanity dies.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: In the present day, Wang Miao, a nanotechnology professor, is asked to work with Shi Qiang, a cunning detective, to investigate the mysterious deaths of several scientists, including Ye Wenjie's daughter Yang Dong. The two of them notice that the world's governments are communicating closely with each other and have put aside their traditional rivalries to prepare for war. Over the next few days, Wang experiences strange hallucinations and meets with Ye. Wang sees people playing a sophisticated virtual-reality video game called "Three Body" (which was created by the ETO as a recruitment tool) and begins to play himself. The game portrays a planet whose climate randomly flips between Stable and Chaotic Eras. During Chaotic Eras, the weather oscillates unpredictably between extreme cold and extreme heat, sometimes within minutes.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The inhabitants (who are represented as having human bodies) seek ways to predict Chaotic Eras so they can better survive. Unlike humans, they have evolved the special ability to 'dehydrate', turning themselves into a roll of canvas. They do this in order to lie dormant when the Chaotic Eras occur, requiring another person to rehydrate them. Characters resembling Aristotle, Mozi, Newton, and others try and fail to model the climate as multiple civilizations grow and are wiped out by large-scale disasters. Wang wins acclaim by figuring out how the climate works: (1) the planet Trisolaris has three suns; (2) the suns have different kinds of compositions, and when they are far away from the planet's surface only the core of the sun can penetrate to the surface, appearing in the sky as a flying star; (3) Stable Eras occur when two suns are far away and Trisolaris orbits the third; (4) Chaotic Eras occur when Trisolaris is pulled by more than one sun; (5) firestorms happen when two or three suns are close to the planet's surface; (6) three flying stars causes intense cold because it means all three suns are far away; and (7) eventually the three suns will align and Trisolaris will plunge into the nearest one and be consumed. The game shows the Trisolarans building and launching colony ships to invade Earth, believing that the stable orbit will allow unprecedented prosperity and let them escape the destruction of their planet.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Wang is inducted into the ETO, and informs Shi of one of their meetings. This leads to a battle between the PLA and the society's soldiers, as well as Ye's arrest. The PLA works with the Americans, led by Colonel Stanton, to ambush Judgement Day as it passes through the Panama Canal. To prevent the crew from destroying their communications with the Trisolarans, the team follows Shi's suggestion to use Wang's nano-material filament in a fence to quickly cut the ship apart and kill everyone aboard. However, documents and computers cut by the filament could be reassembled after. Some revelations emerge from the Trisolaran communications: (1) The aliens have extremely advanced picotechnology that allows them to create 11-dimensional supercomputers called sophons which, when viewed in three dimensions, occupy the volume of a proton. (2) Two of these sophons have been laboriously manufactured and sent to Earth, having the power to cause hallucinations, spy on any corner of the Earth, transmit the information gathered to Trisolaris using quantum entanglement, and disrupt all of Earth's particle accelerators. The Trisolarans fear humanity will develop technology advanced enough to fight off the invasion, and decide that disrupting the accelerators to give random results will paralyze Earth's technological advancement until the Trisolarans arrive.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Once several sophons have arrived, they plan to fabricate visual miracles and other hallucinations on a massive scale to make humanity distrust its own scientists. The Trisolarans detect humanity's revelation via sophons and beam to the eyes of the PLA one final message, "You're bugs!", then cease all communications. Now in custody, Ye is allowed to visit the old Red Coast base, and reflects upon her past choices, noting that humanity from now on will never be the same. Shi Qiang finds Wang Miao and his colleagues in a depressed drinking binge, and sobers them up by driving them to his hometown village in Northeastern China. Shi reflects on how despite all the advances humanity has made with pesticides, the simple-minded locust still manages to survive and thrive. With renewed hope, Wang and Shi return to Beijing to help plan the war against the Trisolarans.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Liu Cixin was born in 1963. When he was 3 years old, his family moved from the Beijing Coal Design Institute to Yangquan in Shanxi Province due to his father's job change. He also spent part of his childhood in the countryside of his ancestral hometown Luoshan County, Henan Province. April 25, 1970, was a pivotal moment for Liu. Looking back on his science-fiction journey, he recalls the day when China's first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1, was launched, and as he stood by the pond looking up at the starry sky, he felt an indefinable sense of longing.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: A few years later, one summer evening, Liu Cixin found an entire box of books under his bed in his home in Yangquan, there was an anthology of Tolstoy, "Moby-Dick", Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth", and Rachel Carson’s "Silent Spring". The first book he read was "Journey to the Center of the Earth", about which his father told him: "It's called science fiction, it's a creative writing based on science". This was his first encounter with science fiction: "My persistence stems from the words of my father". At that time, these books could only be read privately by individuals; "I felt like being alone on an island, is a very lonely state".


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: The reverence, or even fear, of the Universe, is one of the main prompting force of Liu's writing. According to him, as humans, we will stand in awe of the scale and depth of the universe. His novels also focus on the curiosity of the unknown. Liu Cixin says he cannot help thinking about the future world and lifestyle of human beings, and he tries to invoke readers’ curiosity with his books. He also believes that the humans should be treated as an entirety.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: In December 2019, "The New York Times" cited "The Three-Body Problem" as having helped to popularize Chinese science fiction internationally, crediting the quality of Ken Liu's English translation, as well as endorsements of the book by George R. R. Martin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and former U.S. president Barack Obama. George R. R. Martin wrote a blog about the novel, personally expressing its worthiness of the Hugo Award. Obama said the book had "immense" scope, and that it was "fun to read, partly because my day-to-day problems with Congress seem fairly petty".


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: "Kirkus Reviews" wrote that "in concept and development, it resembles top-notch Arthur C. Clarke or Larry Niven but with a perspective—plots, mysteries, conspiracies, murders, revelations and all—embedded in a culture and politic dramatically unfamiliar to most readers in the West, conveniently illuminated with footnotes courtesy of translator Liu." Joshua Rothman of "The New Yorker" also called Liu Cixin "China's Arthur C. Clarke", and similarly observed that in "American science fiction ... humanity's imagined future often looks a lot like America’s past. For an American reader, one of the pleasures of reading Liu is that his stories draw on entirely different resources", citing his use of themes relating to Chinese history and politics.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Matthew A. Morrison writes that the novel can "evoke a response all but unique to the genre: an awe at nature and the universe SF readers call a 'sense of wonder'." Due to the novels' groundbreaking success and reception, Netflix announced in 2020 that Game of Thrones writers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are adapting the series into a sci-fi tv drama.


title: The Three-Body Problem (novel)

text: Also, some Chinese scholars found that the Western readers appreciate the zero-moral universe depicted in the trilogy of The Three Body Problems, which is considered to promote rationalism. Liu Cixin tries to answer the existential dilemma of "where should mankind go from here" through various efforts.


title: Gold

text: Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from ) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal in a pure form. Chemically, gold is a transition metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions. Gold often occurs in free elemental (native state), as nuggets or grains, in rocks, veins, and alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as electrum), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium, and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides).


title: Gold

text: Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid), forming a soluble tetrachloroaurate anion. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid alone, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property long used to refine gold and confirm the presence of gold in metallic substances, giving rise to the term 'acid test'. Gold dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold also dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, and as the gold acts simply as a solute, this is not a chemical reaction.


title: Gold

text: A relatively rare element, gold is a precious metal that has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. In the past, a gold standard was often implemented as a monetary policy. Gold coins ceased to be minted as a circulating currency in the 1930s, and the world gold standard was abandoned for a fiat currency system after the Nixon shock measures of 1971.


title: Gold

text: In 2020, the world's largest gold producer was China, followed by Russia and Australia. A total of around 201,296 tonnes of gold exists above ground, . This is equal to a cube with each side measuring roughly . The world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments and 10% in industry. Gold's high malleability, ductility, resistance to corrosion and most other chemical reactions, and conductivity of electricity have led to its continued use in corrosion-resistant electrical connectors in all types of computerized devices (its chief industrial use). Gold is also used in infrared shielding, production of colored glass, gold leafing, and tooth restoration. Certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine.


title: Gold

text: Gold is the most malleable of all metals. It can be drawn into a wire of single-atom width, and then stretched considerably before it breaks. Such nanowires distort via formation, reorientation and migration of dislocations and crystal twins without noticeable hardening. A single gram of gold can be beaten into a sheet of , and an avoirdupois ounce into . Gold leaf can be beaten thin enough to become semi-transparent. The transmitted light appears greenish-blue, because gold strongly reflects yellow and red. Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflect infrared light, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in visors of heat-resistant suits, and in sun-visors for spacesuits. Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity.


title: Gold

text: Gold has a density of 19.3 g/cm, almost identical to that of tungsten at 19.25 g/cm; as such, tungsten has been used in counterfeiting of gold bars, such as by plating a tungsten bar with gold, or taking an existing gold bar, drilling holes, and replacing the removed gold with tungsten rods. By comparison, the density of lead is 11.34 g/cm, and that of the densest element, osmium, is .


title: Gold

text: Whereas most metals are gray or silvery white, gold is slightly reddish-yellow. This color is determined by the frequency of plasma oscillations among the metal's valence electrons, in the ultraviolet range for most metals but in the visible range for gold due to relativistic effects affecting the orbitals around gold atoms. Similar effects impart a golden hue to metallic caesium.


title: Gold

text: Common colored gold alloys include the distinctive eighteen-karat rose gold created by the addition of copper. Alloys containing palladium or nickel are also important in commercial jewelry as these produce white gold alloys. Fourteen-karat gold-copper alloy is nearly identical in color to certain bronze alloys, and both may be used to produce police and other badges. Fourteen- and eighteen-karat gold alloys with silver alone appear greenish-yellow and are referred to as green gold. Blue gold can be made by alloying with iron, and purple gold can be made by alloying with aluminium. Less commonly, addition of manganese, indium, and other elements can produce more unusual colors of gold for various applications.


title: Gold

text: Colloidal gold, used by electron-microscopists, is red if the particles are small; larger particles of colloidal gold are blue.


title: Gold

text: Gold has only one stable isotope, , which is also its only naturally occurring isotope, so gold is both a mononuclidic and monoisotopic element. Thirty-six radioisotopes have been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 169 to 205. The most stable of these is with a half-life of 186.1 days. The least stable is , which decays by proton emission with a half-life of 30 µs. Most of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses below 197 decay by some combination of proton emission, α decay, and β decay. The exceptions are , which decays by electron capture, and , which decays most often by electron capture (93%) with a minor β decay path (7%). All of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses above 197 decay by β decay.


title: Gold

text: At least 32 nuclear isomers have also been characterized, ranging in atomic mass from 170 to 200. Within that range, only , , , , and do not have isomers. Gold's most stable isomer is with a half-life of 2.27 days. Gold's least stable isomer is with a half-life of only 7 ns. has three decay paths: β decay, isomeric transition, and alpha decay. No other isomer or isotope of gold has three decay paths.


title: Gold

text: The possible production of gold from a more common element, such as lead, has long been a subject of human inquiry, and the ancient and medieval discipline of alchemy often focused on it; however, the transmutation of the chemical elements did not become possible until the understanding of nuclear physics in the 20th century. The first synthesis of gold was conducted by Japanese physicist Hantaro Nagaoka, who synthesized gold from mercury in 1924 by neutron bombardment. An American team, working without knowledge of Nagaoka's prior study, conducted the same experiment in 1941, achieving the same result and showing that the isotopes of gold produced by it were all radioactive. In 1980, Glenn Seaborg transmuted several thousand atoms of bismuth into gold at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Gold can be manufactured in a nuclear reactor, but doing so is highly impractical and would cost far more than the value of the gold that is produced.


title: Gold

text: Although gold is the most noble of the noble metals, it still forms many diverse compounds. The oxidation state of gold in its compounds ranges from −1 to +5, but Au(I) and Au(III) dominate its chemistry. Au(I), referred to as the aurous ion, is the most common oxidation state with soft ligands such as thioethers, thiolates, and organophosphines. Au(I) compounds are typically linear. A good example is , which is the soluble form of gold encountered in mining. The binary gold halides, such as AuCl, form zigzag polymeric chains, again featuring linear coordination at Au. Most drugs based on gold are Au(I) derivatives.