Charles Barkley has an estimated net worth of $90 million and has interests in multiple businesses. However, despite his wealth and financial portfolio, Barkley once admitted he did not know how to use his ATM card, and it was his “Inside the NBA” co-host and friend, Kenny Smith, who taught him.
“I was the first to take him to an ATM machine,” Smith said during an episode of their show. “He did not know how to use it.”
“I’ve never been to an ATM machine,” Barkley admitted.
Kenny taught Chuck how to use his ATM
In 2018, Kenny featured in a video about the time he taught Barkley how to use his ATM card. He said the incident occurred in New York when they bumped into each other in a bar, where Barkley had amassed a $15,000 bill.
When Barkley was about to leave, he wanted to give the waitress a big cash tip. However, he realized that he did not have enough cash in his wallet. Smith told him there was an ATM nearby and he could withdraw cash there. But Barkley revealed that he had never used his card before.
“So we go upstairs, and he looks, and he pulls his card, and he’s like, ‘What do I do?'” Kenny recalled. “Like, what do you do?’ Put it in, and you put your code in. And he’s putting it in, and he’s trying to get the cash out, and I’m sitting there, and he’s like, ‘Hey, hello. Anyone there?’ I’m like, ‘Chuck, what are you doing?'”
“‘I’m talking to the teller. There’s gotta be like a little man back there.’ I’m like: ‘There’s no one back there. It’s a computer. It gets your money out.’ So he puts the code in….boom, boom, boom. So now, getting the money out. I’m like, ‘Chuck, what’s taking so long?’ He’s like, ‘The money won’t come out,'” said Smith in the video.
It turned out Barkley pressed an invalid amount. He was trying to withdraw $30,000 because that was the amount he knew he had in his bank account. Unfortunately for him, an ATM typically dispenses up to $500 per single withdrawal.
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Barkley also brought up the ATM once
That was not the first time Barkley said he did not know how to use an ATM card. A year later, at the height of the Jussie Smollett controversy in 2019, he also mentioned not knowing how to use an ATM card to get cash.
Smollett claimed to be a victim of a hate crime. Still, after police conducted an investigation, it was learned that the attack was staged and that Smollett paid the perpetrators $3,500 to do it. Barkley joked about the incident.
“America, let me just tell you something,” he said. “Do not commit crimes with checks. If you’re gonna break the law, do not write a check…Get cash, man. I never use the ATM. Now, I heard you can only get $200…Gonna make a lot of stops at the ATM…Do not write checks when you commit illegal activity.”
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jan 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.