APPHOENIX - Charles Barkley said Monday that he won “about $700,000” gambling in Las Vegas over the weekend.
“That was all profit (from) blackjack and I bet on the Super Bowl. I had the Colts,” Barkley said in an interview with Phoenix television station KTVK. “I played a lot of blackjack.”
Barkley did not say how much be bet on Sunday’s game in which Indianapolis beat the Chicago Bears 29-17 in Miami.
In an ESPN interview in May 2006, Barkley estimated that he’d lost about $10 million gambling over the years.
He said Monday that he lost $2.5 million “in a six-hour period” one night last year.
“It’s a stupid, bad habit. I have a problem,” Barkley said. “But the problem is when you can’t afford it. I can afford to gamble. I didn’t kill myself when I lost two and half million dollars... I like to gamble and I’m not going to quit.”
Barkley, who lives in the Phoenix area, was elected to the Hall of Fame last year.
He averaged 22.1 points and nearly 12 rebounds in a 16-year career that included stops in Philadelphia, Phoenix and Houston. He was the league’s MVP in 1993 with the Suns, and he won gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as part of the original U.S. Dream Team.
Jeremy Lin had the most astounding performance of his remarkable week, scoring a career-high 38 points and outdueling Kobe Bryant as the New York Knicks held off the Los Angeles Lakers 92-85 on Friday night.
Chandler: Even in eighth grade, Jeremy Lin stood out as a singular talent. So his success with the Knicks is no surprise.
ProBasketballTalk tweets |
|
Source: Twitter. For more, follow @basketballtalk. |
Video: NBA from NBC Sports |
Slideshow |
more photos |
Special feature |
Who will be MVP? Interactive: Rank each player on a scale of 0 to 10 (10 = best player, 0 = barely worthy of consideration). NBCSports.com |
Slideshow |
more photos |
Slideshow |
The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos |