Charles Barkley and bars just seem to be a bad mix.
Barkley has again been accused of getting into a brawl at a nightclub, this time in Cleveland.Jeb Tyler, 23, of Spencerport, N.Y., filed a complaint early Sunday accusing Barkley of assault. Barkley, the Phoenix Suns star who was in town for the U.S. Olympic basketball Dream Team's exhibition game against Brazil, in turn filed a report accusing Tyler of using "bodily force" against him.
No criminal charges were filed. Tyler was scheduled to give a statement to Cleveland police today.
Asked about the incident after the Dream Team's 109-68 victory over Brazil on Sunday, Barkley said, "It's none of your . . . business. No disrespect, but it's my life, isn't it?"
Tyler said he and a friend introduced themselves to Barkley, fellow Dream Teamer Reggie Miller and a woman who was with the players at The Basement, a dance club in a part of town known as "The Flats." Tyler said his friend began talking with the woman.
Tyler said Barkley asked what they were talking about and then told Tyler and his friend they had to leave.
"He said it like three times, `You got to leave,' " Tyler said. "I said, `No, I'm not leaving the bar.' Then I said, `How about you leave the bar?' As soon as I said that, he punched me in the nose."
Tyler, who is 6-feet, 180 pounds, said he and Barkley both landed a few punches.
"When the fight was getting broken up, he was still jumping over the bouncer and still throwing punches," Tyler said. "He was going nuts. He was just crazy."
Police reports obtained by WEWS-TV in Cleveland indicated that the fight took place at 1:30 a.m. The reports said Barkley tried to leave the bar in a cab with Miller. Police stopped the cab, and Barkley and Tyler filed their complaints.
When Miller was asked what happened, he threw his head back and playfully pleaded, "Let's talk about the game."
Tyler, a business equipment salesman who lives near Rochester, said he was in Cleveland for the weekend and had three beers before the incident.
Miller, Barkley and Cleveland Indians left fielder Albert Belle had dinner together earlier in the evening. No accounts indicate that Belle was at the bar where the alleged altercation took place.
"It's really unfortunate," Miller said. "You try to go out, you try to have a good time, and something like this happens."
Sgt. Charles Finchum of the Cleveland police department said no one was available to comment. The phone was repeatedly busy at The Basement.
Charges were dropped against Barkley and another NBA player, Jayson Williams, after they were accused of being in a bar fight in Chicago in 1992.
That same year, Barkley was acquitted of misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct charges for punching a man who had taunted him and a friend outside a Milwaukee tavern a year earlier. The jury accepted Barkley's argument that he acted in self-defense when he broke the Milwaukee man's nose.