Charles Barkley is right. Sadly. Barkley, a former NBA star and current TNT basketball analyst, long has insisted athletes should not be viewed as role models. Still, we cling to the idea, the hope, that these men who are capable of such amazing performances on the field are equally amazing off the field. Yet off the field, they are just like the rest of us, imperfect and prone to bad decisions.

PHOENIX—Former NBA star Charles Barkley was released from jail Monday after serving a three-day sentence on a drunken-driving conviction. Barkley left the Tent City jail just before 8 a.m., and avoided a group of reporters by leaving through another door, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Brian Lee said. Barkley, a TNT studio analyst, reported to the jail Saturday morning wearing a blue warm-up suit with red stripes. He was not required to wear a jail uniform or the county’s signature pink underwear because he got work release, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Former NBA great Charles Barkley will serve only three days in jail for DUI after a judge reduced his original 10-day sentence. Scottsdale city spokesman Mike Phillips said on Friday that a judge reviewed the case and decided that seven days should be suspended if the Barkley, now a TNT basketball analyst, completes an alcohol treatment program.

Charles Barkley is taking a leave of absence from the broadcast booth. Turner Sports made the announcement today, hours after police said Barkley—an analyst for the TNT network and a former NBA star—was legally drunk when he was arrested Dec. 31 on suspicion of drunken driving in Scottsdale, Ariz. Test results show Barkley, 45, had a blood-alcohol level at .149, nearly twice the legal limit of .08 in Arizona.

AUBURN, Ala.—Charles Barkley was pulling for Auburn to hire Turner Gill as football coach long before Gene Chizik emerged publicly as a candidate for the job. Barkley’s take on why his alma mater hired Chizik instead: Gill is a black coach, Chizik is white. “I believe race had a factor. Of course I do,“ Barkley, a former Auburn and NBA star, said Monday in a phone interview with The Associated Press hours after Chizik was introduced. “First of all you can’t compare these two, their records. That’s not even close to being fair.