Barkley didn’t stop there, though. Nowitzki left such an impression on Auburn’s greatest hoops export that Barkley even talked to Cliff Ellis, Auburn’s coach at the time, to encourage the program to make a run at this relatively unknown teenager in Europe. “I know Charles loved Dirk. Loved him,” Ellis said. “You couldn’t get the film back in those days like you do now, but we saw film of him, though it was very limited. Of course, if Charles said he was good enough, that was good enough for me, to be honest. “He just said, ‘Hey, Coach, there’s a guy out there that I absolutely love. I’d love for him to come to Auburn.’ It would have been a neat thing. It’s one of those what-ifs.”