Barkley is not the first professional athlete to make a guest star appearance on the series. Olympian and eight-time gold winner on swimming Michael Phelps also filmed a cameo during Season 3 of “Suits.”
Korsh said that getting Charles Barkley to guest in “Suits” is also an accomplishment for him. He hinted that he grew up in the Philadelphia during the Barkley era with the team so that was the idea for the particular scene came from.
He disclosed that he has been receiving several requests to put people in the show as cameos but when he learned that Charles is a big fan of the show, he felt it was very personal. Korsh said that he is a huge basketball fan, particularly Barkley, and he always will so he spared no time and effort to ensure that Charles gets onboard.
While the creator admits that there were some network concerns in giving Charles Barkley a speaking role at first in case he had a problem with the lines, he does not want his idol to be just a prop in the scene. So he and Charles, along with Gabriel Macht and Director Anton Cropper worked it out real well during the rehearsals before rolling the cameras.