How did Charles Barkley’s copy of Michael Jordan’s 1991 SI cover end up for sale in Philly?
It looks like Charles Barkley was a Sports Illustrated subscriber way back when.
SB Nation writer Josh Priemski was at a “random store in Old Philly that just sells old stuff to hipsters” on Saturday when he stumbled upon a copy of Michael Jordan’s 1991 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year issue, the one famous for its holographic cover.
He initially passed on the chance to buy it, but Priemski soon realized it was more than just an old tattered magazine.
Barkley was playing for the Sixers at the time and the address on the cover is for a large house in a gated community on Philadelphia’s swanky Main Line, exactly the type of place you’d expect an NBA player to live. If that circumstantial evidence doesn’t convince you, when Barkley was arrested for gun possession in 1988, police gave his residence as Bala Cynwyd.
So yeah, the odds are pretty good that it actually belonged to Chuck.
Of course, Josh went back to the store and dropped a cool five bucks to buy it.
