Barkley `Misquoted' In Own Book

PHILADELPHIA - Charles Barkley said he won't fight release of his autobiography, in which he trashes 76ers owner Harold Katz and claims his grandmother can score more points in a game than Manute Bol, despite his complaints his co-writer misquoted him.

Barkley said he told his agent, Glenn Guthrie, to call his publisher and stop the book "Outrageous" from hitting the shelves next week. He said his co-writer, Roy S. Johnson of Sports Illustrated, misquoted or misinterpreted remarks he made about Bol, center Charles Shackleford, Armon Gilliam and other things.

But last night, Barkley said he had changed his mind.

"The book is coming out," Barkley said. "There are going to be a couple of things (wrong). The majority of the book is correct, and I stick by it."

He said he learned his publisher, Simon & Shuster of New York, had already published 60,000 copies of the book and "there's nothing they can do."

Barkley added that he hadn't read his 317-page book. He became angry when reading several of his remarks from "Outrageous" that were printed in yesterday's of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He said of the inaccuracies: "That's going to happen anytime you write a book, so I just have to deal with the heat."

Jeff Newman, Simon & Shuster's sports-books director, said he was sure Johnson had tape-recorded Barkley's remarks that were published in the book.

Johnson wouldn't say whether he taped Barkley, but said: "I completed this collaboration with the same diligence that I have practiced for the last 12 years."