Charles Barkley says NO player would make $300,000,000 without Michael Jordan
"People act like guys always made $30, 40, 50 million dollars. When I got to the NBA, the average salary was $200,000, and then Magic and Bird came"
"I know I'm not as good as Bill Russell. Bill Russell made $2,000 and I was making $3 or $4 million, just because I was born at the right time. And not just the basketball and the money… Michael bought the shoes. People forget, nobody was doing commercials before Michael. Nobody was making money off shoes before Michael"
"Now guys are making $300, 400 million dollars a year because of Michael. Secondly, we all got commercials, nobody made commercials before Michael Jordan came along"
Charles Barkley says putting family on the payroll is the fastest way to go broke
"I tell these young kids, if you want to do something nice for your mom and dad, or a brother or sister, that's fine but they don't have to be on the payroll. You don't owe them that. That was their job to take care of you"
"Grant Hill's mom gave me the best advice ever. Don't start taking care of your family and friends, they're never going to stop and it's going to ruin all your relationships"
"When you start giving people money, they're never going to ask you just one time. No matter what you do for them, the first time you tell them no, they hate you"
Karl Urban says he got revenge on Viggo Mortensen 10 years after a prank war began between them, and the prank became so massive that it “made the national news” and was “televised.”
“It basically degenerated into this prank war between Viggo and I.” Urban says it all started when his phone rang at “3:00 in the morning” and his panicked agent told him, “Karl, you gotta get on the plane! You cannot not get on the plane. I will buy you another pair of red socks.” Confused, he asked what was going on. After a pause, she simply replied: “Viggo.”
Mortensen had apparently called her in the middle of the night claiming, “I can't get on the plane. I can't find my lucky red socks. I'm not gonna go to London. I can't do it,” before hanging up, sending both Urban and his agent into chaos.
Urban never forgot it.
A decade later, while promoting Dredd in Spain, Urban quietly planted a fake story with journalists. He casually told them Mortensen had bought a farm, owned “a thousand goats,” and was making goat cheese.
The next day, every reporter interviewing Mortensen wanted to know about the goat cheese business instead of his movie. As Urban proudly recalled:
“It made the national news. Televised.” 😂