NBA Barkley wants to enter HOF as a Sun

The basketball hall of fame says Charles Barkley will go in representing himself.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- Charles Barkley created a stink a couple of weeks ago when he told fans of the Phoenix Suns that he wanted to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a Sun, not a Philadelphia 76er.
Well, that's not going to happen. According to Hall of Fame rules, its member players enter the shrine representing themselves and are not affiliated with any team. The plaques at the Hall do not show the player in any specific uniform.
The reason is that the Basketball Hall of Fame covers the wide range of basketball, from high school to the pros to international basketball. Thus, an inductee can be associated with multiple teams.
However, Hall rules state an inductee can pick whomever he wants to present him, so if Barkley wants to reward the Suns, he can pick someone from that team as his escort.
Or, after a few rounds of golf this summer in the Philadelphia area, he can go back to rewarding someone from the Sixers.
Sultan of swat
You could say that Theo Ratliff is a shot-blocking enthusiast.
Need proof? In his 25 games with Portland, Ratliff has had games of nine and eight blocked shots. He's blocked seven shots in a game twice and, on Thursday night against the Sixers, he had his seventh game of six blocked shots.
"That's the way I've been playing since I've been here," said Ratliff, the NBA leader in blocked shots. "I'm just trying to do what I can to help my teammates. It's no different from being here [in Philadelphia] or where I've played at."
Ratliff was impressed with Samuel Dalembert, who is 11th in the league in blocked shots, but noted that the Sixers' young center doesn't have the veteran players around to guide him, as he did when he was growing as an NBA player with the Detroit Pistons.
"The only difference in [Dalembert] and me," he said, "is that I had a lot of experienced guys around me when I came into the league, like Rick Mahorn, Mark West, Joe Dumars -- different guys around me to teach me different little things on the floor, to have a better defensive game.
"They just taught me little things that I picked up on, things they did against me when I was on defense to stop me from being able to block shots that I try to bring into the game I play."
Quotable
Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy, asked by the Houston Chronicle whom his favorites were for NBA coach of the year: "If you're still employed, you're coach of the year this year."