Houston Rockets power forward Charles Barkley offered no apologies about charges he wrestled a man from an officer's grasp Sunday morning and hurled him through a glass window at Phineas Phoggs, a bar in Church Street Station.

"What [police and witnesses) said happened, happened," Barkley said. "What he did was inappropriate. I'm going to defend myself. Let there be no debate. If you bother me, I'm going to whip your ass. The guy threw ice in my face, and I slammed his ass into the window. I'm not denying that. I defended myself. He got what he deserved."

Sunday night, before Barkley and the Rockets played an exhibition game against the Orlando Magic, Barkley made it clear he would do the same again.

"I'm going to defend myself and whoever I'm with at all times," he said. "I made that clear in my years in the NBA. I will never back down from the public. I will never back down. They are going to respect me, or I'm going to defend myself."

Barkley, charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest without violence, walked out of the Orange County Jail about 7:15 a.m. Sunday on $6,000 bond. Rockets guard Clyde Drexler, who was with Barkley at the bar, bailed him out.

Drexler said, "He certainly was provoked. No question about that."

Jorge Lugo, 20, a construction laborer, was released from Orlando Regional Medical Center after treatment for minor cuts to his right arm. Mark NeJame, an Orlando attorney representing Lugo,

said Barkley's attack was not self defense. The lawyer said Lugo is 5 feet 2 and 110 pounds.

The ruckus erupted about 2 a.m. Barkley arrived at about 11 p.m. An off-duty officer, Jeffery Williams, working at the bar said Barkley had been signing autographs.

A woman with Barkley's group said Barkley had tried to avoid confrontation. Karen Carrington of Deltona said Barkley had ignored Lugo as he shouted curses and threw a cup of ice.

But Lugo returned, she said, and When he threw a glass, hitting Carrington in the jaw and knocking her off her chair, Barkley got angry.

Carrington, whose face was bruised, said she watched as Barkley ran outside and grabbed Lugo.

"I did see that the guy fell into the glass," she said. "He backed up against the glass. The pressure shattered the glass."

Lugo's attorney said his client denies the claims and has witnesses to corroborate his version of the events.

"He did not throw either ice or the glass," NeJame said. "It's not to say somebody didn't, but it wasn't him."

Officers pulled Barkley away, but he stepped back to Lugo and said, "For all I care, you can lay there and die."