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Six new members enter basketball Hall Of Fame

Former NBA star Charles Barkley led the 2006 class of inductees into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA on Friday night. Also enshrined were two other NBA stars, Joe Dumars and Dominique Wilkins, former Big East commissioner Dave Gavitt, Connecticut women`s coach Geno Auriemma and Italian coach Sandro Gamba. Barkley, Auriemma and Gavitt were first-ballot selections.

Sir Charles retired from basketball in 2000 after a 16-year career. Like Wilkins, he has never won an NBA championship, but was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic Basketball "Dream Team" that won the Gold Medal in Spain. He was a charismatic, outspoken competitor, famous for claiming "I`m not a role model." At the ceremony in Springfield, though, the new Hall of Fame inductee acted more like a role model, offering some advice for today`s players.

"I tell all these young kids, the money you make, save it, put it in the bank," he said. "That money has to last you the rest of your lifetime. Don`t waste it." Barkely also criticized today`s NBA players for playing selfishly, adding "I always tried as hard as I possibly could. I like seeing that on tape. Today, they want to be stars. They don`t want to be great players. We wanted to be great players." Like in the past, Barkley had his listeners laughing with one liners about being arrested several times. "I was always acquitted," he said.