What do Paul O’Neill and Charles Barkley have in common?

We have been scratching our heads all day trying to recall the memoirist who, like Paul O’Neill, disavowed his memoirs, complaining that he had been misquoted. Deacon vaguely recalled that Charles Barkley had performed the feat in connection with his 1992 “autobiography” Outrageous!: The Fine Life and Flagrant Good Times of Basketball’s Irresistible Force .
Now reader James Phillips confirms that “O’Neill has joined Charles Barkley in disavowing his own memoirs. The only thing missing is O’Neill saying, a la Charles, ‘I misquoted myself.'” Like the magnanimous man he is, Barkley blamed himself for the mix-up. “That was my fault,” he acknowledged. “I should have read it before it came out.”
Trying to find the relevant Barkley quotations, I also found his response to Tonya Harding’s characterization of herself as “the Charles Barkley of figure skating.” Barkley stated, “My initial response was to sue her for defamation of character, but then I realized that I had no character.”

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