NEW YORK -- U.S. basketball star Charles Barkley says he's a better man since a 1991 basketball game in which he accidentally spat in a little girl's face.


After all, his behavior has to improve if he wants to become this country's first black Republican governor. He plans to run for office in Alabama in 1998.


The Phoenix Suns player says in the February issue of Vanity Fair magazine the goal is not far-fetched.


"I think if you're good from the beginning it stunts your growth, your drive," he said. "Out of everything I've accomplished -- everything -- I still think the most important thing ever was proving everybody wrong about me. God gave me a special gift, but I have taken it a long way."


He says he believes what American children need most is a good education.


"Maybe you have to come from my background to understand how insecure a kid is if he doesn't have an education," he said.


Barkley, the NBA's most valuable player in 1993, says this is his last season. He also says the spitting incident came about when he spat at a heckler but hit the girl instead.


"What does that say about me that I let a basketball game -- a game! -- get to me so much that I want to spit on other human being. It was my fault. After that I started to be a better person."