SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Charles Barkley was arrested on suspicion of drinking and driving early Wednesday.
An officer with a law enforcement task force that targets drunken driving saw the former NBA star run a stop sign around 1:30 a.m., Gilbert police Lt. Eric Shuhandler said.
Barkley declined to submit to a breath test but was given a blood test. The results weren’t immediately available.
After Barkley was processed, he was cited and released. He left in a cab, Shuhandler said.
“I am disappointed that I put myself in that situation,” Barkley said in a statement to The Associated Press. “The Scottsdale police were fantastic. Now it is a legal matter and I will not comment any further as it is a legal matter.”
Shuhandler said there was nothing remarkable about the 45-year-old Barkley’s arrest and that it is customary to release people after they’ve been arrested on suspicion of DUI.
“There was nothing unusual about how he was taken into custody,” Shuhandler said. “He was treated exactly like we treat anybody else.”
Barkley was arrested in Scottsdale’s Old Town area, one of the trendiest spots in the Phoenix metro area.
A television commentator for NBA games, the former Auburn player was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame last month.
He played 16 NBA seasons for the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, and played on the 1992 and 1996 Olympic teams. Barkley was an 11-time NBA All-Star and league MVP in 1993.
Selected one the NBA’s 50 greatest players in 1996, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
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