Barkley Lands In Slammer After Slamming Bar Patron

Charles Barkley was arrested early Sunday for hurling a bar patron through a plate-glass window after the man tossed a glass of ice at him.

Police in Orlando, Fla., said the Houston Rockets star told the victim as he lay bleeding on the ground: “You got what you deserve. You don’t respect me. I hope you’re hurt.”

The 20-year-old patron, Jorge Lugo, was treated at a hospital for a minor laceration to his upper right arm.

Barkley was charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest without violence, police said. He was jailed for 5 hours before being released on $6,000 bond.

Barkley, who has been involved in several incidents in bars and nightclubs over the past five years, said he had never met Lugo and that Lugo threw the glass of ice at him unprovoked.

“I’m going to defend myself … at all times. I’ve made that clear in my years in the NBA,” Barkley said Sunday afternoon. “If you bother me, I’m going to whup you.”

The fight at Phineas Phogg’s bar at Church Street Station, a popular entertainment district in downtown Orlando, began as the bar was clearing out.

The Big Ten and CBS Sports have agreed to a multiyear contract extension that will have the network broadcasting games involving conference basketball teams through 2006.

The initial contract between the league and the network began in 1991 and was to run through 2001.