Sporty Blog - The Sport Blog

A few weeks ago the Indy Car Series, which is the States Top Open Wheel Racing category and NOT NASCAR… Made their foray into the Belly of the Beast by making their inaugural trip to the Barber, as in Barber Motorsports Park down in Sweet Home Alabama…

Thus it made sense that they’d seek somebody of local lore to be the race’s very first Grand Marshall of Festivities for the Alabama Grand Prix, picking a very colorful character affectionately known as Sir Charles, a.k.a. Charles Barkley who was also given the moniker of being the Round Mound of Rebound, due to his enormous girth whilst having an unbelievable ability to snare an enormous amount of rebounds over his much taller adversaries.

And it certainly was a long-long Time Ago when I saw Sir Charles cutting his swath towards stardom during his early years with the Philadelphia 76ers, way back in 1987 during Doctor J’s Swan Song year in the NBA, as I can still recall Barkley in his all white uniform with a buzz cut before he went Air Jordan style… In what was then known simply as the coliseum, before later being renamed Key Arena when the Seattle Supersonics still existed in the Pacific Northwest!

And Sir Charles performed all of the associated Grand Marshall duties during the weekend’s activities in his Home state of Birmingham, AL, where he’s confessed to one day wanting to dabble in Politics, even reportedly having announced his candidacy for Alabama Governor in 2014, albeit probably after his TNT Studio Analyst contract expires.

Thus The Chuckster’s Grand Marshall Appointment made me flash back to The Big Cactus’s duties as Indy Car Grand Marshall last year at Texas Motor Speedway; Y’all know everything’s BIGGER in Texas, right?

As Shaquille O’Neil was “The Sherriff” that weekend, even participating in a Pit stop Demonstration as a tire changer for the Luczo Dragon Racing Team, since obviously he cannot fit inside the cars tiny cockpit!

As a side note, Stephen J. Luczo, who is Part Owner of the Indy Car Racing Team is also Part Owner of the MSL’s Vancouver Whitecaps who’ll debut next season, while another of its Owners is the Phoenix suns Steve Nash.

Meanwhile though, over the weekend, Sir Charles was heard to exclaim there AIN’T NO Shoehorn big enough to squeeze him into one of those cockpits, before the Round Mound of Rebound threw the race’s Green flag!