Charles Barkley is one of a long list of Hall of Famers who missed out on the NBA title just because they were playing in the same era as Michael Jordan. But Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were very close friends. 

They met in the 1993 NBA finals when the Phoenix Suns played against the Chicago Bulls. Usurprisingly, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls came out as winners. And Barkley ended up never winning an NBA championship during his otherwise illustrious career.

A McDonald’s commercial featuring Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley from 1995 is doing the rounds now. And the way Michael treats Chuck was hilarious.

Notably, Charles Barkley also played himself in Michael Jordan’s ‘Space Jam’ movie. Jordan and Barkley were drafted in the same year as 1984. While Jordan was selected as the 3rd pick by the Chicago Bulls, Chuck was selected as the 5th pick by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley

The two were fierce competitors on the court but were very close friends off it. In 1992, they got to play together for the ‘Dream Team’ and won the Olympic gold medal.

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They have a combined 25 All-Star appearances across 31 seasons. Barkley won the MVP award in 1992-93 over Jordan and others. But Michael Jordan has won five MVP awards and six NBA championships. 

And their close friendship blossomed even with all the fierce battles they had on the basketball court and on golf courses. 

But the friendship took a hit after Barkley’s comments about Jordan’s poor job with the then Bobcats. In 2012, the Bobcats finished with the worse record ever of 7-59 and Charles criticized Jordan’s ownership.

He said, “I don’t know if he has hired enough people around him who he will listen to,” Barkley said. “One thing about being famous is the people around you, you pay all their bills so they very rarely disagree with you because they want you to pick up the check. They want to fly around on your private jet so they never disagree with you. I don’t think Michael has hired enough people around him who will disagree.”

And it seems like Michael Jordan took it personally. We understand he does that a lot from the Netflix docuseries ‘The Last Dance’. Ever since Chuck’s comments, they have not been on speaking terms. Recently, Chuck opened up about his fractured relationship with Jordan.

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Jordan played 1072 career games and averaged an unbelievable 30.1 points per game with 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. Barkley played 1073 career games and averaged 22.1 points per game with 11.7 rebounds, 3.9 assists, and 1.5 steals per game.

While the Chicago Bulls established a statue of Michael Jordan, the Philadelphia 76ers did the same with Charles Barkley.