Suns Send Barkley To Rockets, Receive Four Men In Return Cassell, Horry, Bryant, Brown Complete Deal For Nba Star

Charles Barkley flew into Houston on Sunday night, set to join the Rockets and complete a trade with the Phoenix Suns that had simmered all summer.

Under the deal, to be announced today, Houston will send point guard Sam Cassell and forwards Robert Horry, Mark Bryant and Chucky Brown to Phoenix. All four become free agents after this season.

Barkley, intent on winning an NBA title before he retires, avoided a crowd awaiting his arrival at Intercontinental Airport. The star forward exited the plane onto the tarmac and got into a limousine.

Before arriving in Houston, Barkley was vacationing in Philadelphia and told two television stations there: “I’m very excited. Obviously, it’s something I wanted to do. Houston was my first priority.”

Barkley confirmed what was first reported earlier in the day by The Arizona Republic.

“We’re not going to deny it,” Rockets spokesman Tim Frank told The Associated Press. “But we really can’t get into anything right now.”

Phoenix radio station KTAR said the Suns would announce the trade today at a 4 p.m. news conference in Phoenix. Houston radio station KTRH said the deal awaited only NBA approval.

An NBA spokesman did not immediately return a message left on his home answering machine.

Barkley, 33, has two years left on his contract, which pays him $4.6 million next season. The combined salaries of the four Houston players are within the allowable 15 percent of Barkley’s salary, bringing the deal into compliance with the league’s salary-cap restrictions.

The Rockets also appear ready to announce the signing of free agent center Kevin Willis, a 7-footer who can play power forward and back up center Hakeem Olajuwon. Willis divided last year between Miami and Golden State.

“We will not deny it,” Frank said.

Brown told KTRH Sunday he would be going to the Suns. He said he had been contacted at his home in Raleigh, N.C., by Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich, who told him Cassell and Horry were to go with him.

“Rudy called and said that I had to be part of it for the salary cap and stuff,” he told the station. “It wasn’t really a surprise because it’s not like I never felt I would be traded.”

Cassell returned to Houston on Sunday from a charity basketball game in Memphis, Tenn.

“I know the Rockets wanted Charles to get here,” Cassell told KRIV-TV in Houston. “Hopefully, (Houston) can regain another championship but I’m going to try to make it as hard as possible.”

Cassell said Robert Barr, Rockets vice president of basketball affairs, notified him of the trade.

“It’s not like I’m a guy that can’t play the game of basketball, and this is my last stop,” Cassell told the station. “I’m going down to Phoenix and learn everything I can from Kevin (Johnson) before he retires. Then, I’ll step right in when he retires, and it’ll be my ballclub.”

Barkley’s relationship with the Suns soured last season, and he has said he would retire if they didn’t trade him to a contender. In an interview with NBC during the NBA finals in June, Barkley said Houston was among the teams he would consider joining.

Barkley said Sunday he was pleased with the way the deal had worked out.

“I called the shots,” he said. “When push comes to shove I think you have to stand up to the system.”