HOUSTON - No one will ever accuse Charles Barkley of being subtle. That's not changing now that he's on the Houston Rockets.
''I don't guarantee anything,'' the star forward said Monday after he was traded by the Phoenix Suns for four players, including guard Sam Cassell and forward Robert Horry. ''But I have no problem saying this: If we don't win a championship, I'll be crushed.''
That's exactly what the Rockets brass, who won the NBA title in 1994 and 1995 before falling short last season, wanted to hear.
''He's really a coach on the floor and has a lunch-pail attitude,'' Rockets owner Les Alexander said.
''We have to make tough decisions in this business,'' Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. ''This was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. There are elite players, those you can say do it all, and Charles Barkley is one of them.''
Also moved to the Suns in the blockbuster deal were forward-center Mark Bryant, who backed up Hakeem Olajuwon, and forward Chucky Brown, the only Rockets player to appear in all 82 regular-season games last season.
Barkley raises the off-court persona of the normally low-key, workmanlike Rockets. On the court, he brings swagger along with a career mark of averaging better than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
''My only goal is to win a championship,'' he said. ''I'm going to do my best. If you look at my career, I've been consistent.
''All I want to do is play basketball,'' he added. ''When I first heard about the trade, I was a little nervous because they did give up a lot to get me.
''I don't look at it as pressure. It's a challenge. Hopefully, it will work out.''
Barkley said he wanted to finish his career in Phoenix, where he played the last four years. But once they started shopping him around, he felt it was time to leave.
One thing Barkley won't get in Houston is his traditional uniform, No. 34. That's already taken by Olajuwon. He'll wear No. 4 instead.
''Couldn't beat them, you had to join them,'' he joked, holding up the jersey. The last two years, Houston eliminated Phoenix from the NBA playoffs.
Barkley's arrival was greeted warmly by his two All-Star teammates, Clyde Drexler and Olajuwon.
''I'm sad the other guys have to leave, but when you have a chance to get a Hall of Fame player, you make the move,'' Drexler said. ''It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.''
''The only thing that appears constant in life is change,'' said Olajuwon, who was a teammate of Barkley's on the recent gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic basketball team.
''My heart is filled with the memories of my championship teammates. ... I welcome Charles Barkley to the Rockets and look forward with great anticipation to our quest as teammates for the 1997 NBA World Championship.''
Monday's deal capped months of talks that appeared to stall earlier this summer when a much-rumored, three-way trade involving the Rockets, Suns and Denver Nuggets fizzled.
The earlier exchange would have cost the Rockets only Horry and Cassell, two mainstays of their 1994 and 1995 NBA championship teams. Now they also surrender Brown, 27, and Bryant, 31.
In Cassell, 26, and Horry, who turns 26 this week, the Suns get youth and potential. Both are streaky players capable of lighting up a scoreboard with 3-point shots, but they also can disappear from the scoring sheets.
Barkley is a 10-time All-Star who averaged 23.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists last season.
Almost lost in the Barkley hoopla was Houston's signing of 7-foot, free-agent center Kevin Willis, who averaged better than 10 points and eight rebounds last year while playing for Miami and Golden State.
''I'm extremely happy,'' Willis said. ''I'm thrilled.''
With Barkley and Willis joining Olajuwon, the Rockets hope to improve from the ranks of the NBA's worst rebounding teams.
They also expect to better compete with Western Conference rivals Seattle, which swept Houston 4-0 in the playoffs last season to end the Rockets' dream of a third straight NBA title, and the Los Angeles Lakers, bolstered by the offseason signing of free-agent center Shaquille O'Neal.
''Seattle is the team to beat,'' Barkley said of the defending Western Conference champions. ''But I don't see anybody in the West who can beat us. I like our chances. We are going to cause some problems for some teams.''
. The fukk is happening to basketball
