We finally get to a player whose entire career has been rewritten. That player is none other than the Chuckster himself, Charles Barkley. He was drafted a year after our sim began, and with no Michael Jordan in the draft, Barkley would go much earlier than he did in reality.
In reality, Barkley was selected fifth overall by the Philadelphia 76ers after Akeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Sam Bowie, and Sam Perkins. In our world, Barkley would not be passed on.
He went second overall behind Olajuwon, and because of a trade, it was Philadelphia that held the Clippers' pick and selected him. Just like in reality, Barkley was headed to the City of Brotherly Love, where he would join Julius Erving and Moses Malone.
Barkley's first season mirrored reality, at least when it came to how far the Sixers went. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals and faced Larry Bird's Celtics.
The difference was that while Philadelphia lost that series in five games in reality, our Sixers pushed the defending champions all the way to Game 7 before falling short.
In 1986, things really started to change. In reality, Philadelphia had swept Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Semifinals the year before, but the Bucks got their revenge the following season, taking the Sixers to seven games and winning the decisive game at home.
In our world, however, it was another showdown with Boston, again in the East Finals. Once again, the Sixers came up short in Boston in Game 7, but after two straight trips to the Eastern Conference Finals, it felt like something special was coming.
That something special arrived in 1987.
The Sixers captured the No. 1 seed and once again met the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. This time there would be no Game 7. Philadelphia took care of business in five games and advanced to the NBA Finals, where they faced the Dallas Mavericks.
The Sixers found themselves down 3-1, but history was about to be made. Philadelphia came all the way back to win the series, giving Barkley his first NBA championship in just his third season.
He was also named Finals MVP. Nearly 30 years before LeBron James and the Cavaliers became the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals in reality, Barkley and the Sixers had already done it in our world.
And think about how different that is from the real Charles Barkley's career. In reality, Barkley never won a championship or a Finals MVP. He eventually left Philadelphia for Phoenix, where he reached the Finals but lost to Michael Jordan's Bulls. Later, he teamed up with Olajuwon in Houston, but never made it back to the Finals.
Here in Rewritten Rings, Barkley had already accomplished more in his first three seasons than he would accomplish during his entire real-life career.
The success continued in 1988 when Barkley won his one and only league MVP, matching the total he would eventually earn in reality. The difference, of course, is that his real-life MVP came in the same season he led Phoenix to the NBA Finals. In our world, Barkley was already a champion and Finals MVP before adding the regular-season MVP to his résumé.
Dr. J still retired following the 1987 season, but Moses Malone remained in Philadelphia, and with Barkley now firmly established as a superstar, the Sixers reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth consecutive year. Unfortunately, Washington had other plans. The Bullets, led by John Stockton and Clyde Drexler, eliminated Philadelphia in another Game 7.
It was a rematch of the 1987 Semifinals, when John Long hit a buzzer-beating three in Game 7 to send the Sixers to the Eastern Conference Finals. A year later, Long was gone, and Washington got its revenge.
In 1989, Philadelphia was once again the No. 1 seed, but this time they fell in the Semifinals to Brad Daugherty and the New York Knicks in another Game 7 at home. The next two seasons were even more disappointing, with the Sixers losing in the first round to familiar opponents in the Celtics and Bullets.
Then came 1992.
Philadelphia had fallen all the way to the eighth seed, but the Sixers had added Alex English and suddenly found themselves with a chance to make some history.
They became the first eighth seed in NBA history to knock off a No. 1 seed. It was another memorable playoff moment for Barkley, although the run came to an end in the next round when Reggie Miller and the New Jersey Nets swept Philadelphia.
That would be the final playoff appearance of Barkley's career.
In reality, Barkley left Philadelphia in 1992 and continued his career with Phoenix and Houston. In our world, however, he stayed in Philadelphia for his entire career, eventually retiring in 2001 as one of the greatest players in franchise history.
His Rewritten Rings résumé includes a league MVP, a Finals MVP, an NBA championship, 10 All-Star selections, a Hall of Fame career, and a retired number in Philadelphia.
He has one fewer All-Star appearance than he had in reality, but I'm pretty sure if you asked Barkley which career he would rather have, he wouldn't need much time to answer.
The real Charles Barkley is remembered as one of the greatest players ever to never win a championship. The Rewritten Rings version never has to carry that label.
Instead, Barkley gets something that eluded him in reality: a championship, a Finals MVP, and a place forever among Philadelphia's basketball legends.
Sometimes rewriting history doesn't require changing everything. For Charles Barkley, it only took one thing: giving him the opportunity to go second instead of fifth.
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