Nick Saban compliments Charles Barkley on his media career: 'I've always looked up to Charles'

Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban and former Auburn Tigers basketball star Charles Barkley should be enemies, given the schools they’ve long since been associated with. However, that isn’t the case. In fact, Saban even looks up to Barkley, and that’s not just because Barkley is a foot taller than him.

Saban, who recently joined the sports media landscape, actually looks up to Barkley for what he’s done in his media career. That’s something he explained before golfing together at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am.

“We’re always happy to be here,” Nick Saban said. “This is one of the things that I look forward to every year. Great experiences to develop relationships with some of the great players in golf who have great reputations and been great for the game. So, this is fantastic, and I’m looking forward to playing with Charles today. I’ve always looked up to Charles.”

Barkley is a Leeds, Alabama, native who went to Auburn for his college career. There, he was a star, getting his number retired while being named the SEC Player of the Year in 1984. He was also the SEC Tournament MVP that season. He’d go on to have a Hall of Fame career, winning two Olympic gold medals and becoming a Hall of Fame player.

Today, Barkley works in basketball media and has become a popular figure nationally. He also remains close to Auburn, which Saban shared he respects.

“Thought he was a great player, but he does a great job professionally in terms of media, which you all are a part of,” Saban said. “And I certainly respect the fact that he comes home and supports the community like he does. So, that’s something I’m looking forward to.”

There has long since been some mutual respect between Barkley and Saban, too. When Saban made the decision to step away from coaching, Barkley publicly thanked him and jokingly said, “You should’ve come to the party we had down at Auburn.” Outside of that joke, he’s also made it clear he respects Saban enormously.

“I have a great deal of respect and admiration for him. He did a couple things that really made me feel proud, and I consider him a friend. He called me one year to talk to the team and things like that about these kids are different than us. They’ve got to deal with social media. They don’t get to screw up like we did in my day and nobody knew about it. Everything is on social media today,” Barkley said.

“But the one thing he did that really meant a great deal to me, he called me and asked me to come speak to his young, Black players about what it’s like. Especially when all of the George Floyd things were going on. That really meant a lot to me and I’ll always be appreciative. These kids, it’s different now. They’re under so much pressure, Paul, with the TikTok, with the Instagram, the Facebook. People out there insulting them. Everybody gets together with their opinion. These kids, man, I admire them for handling the pressure.”

After Saban left coaching, he unsurprisingly landed his own job in sports media with ESPN’s College GameDay. There, he seems to have hit the ground running in his own media career. Still, perhaps Barkley can give him some advice on the job, just as long as he doesn’t try to give out any advice on Saban’s golf swing.