Between his friends who had a falling out with him, Michael Jordan can count on one person having his back. Charles Barkley has apparently not spoken to MJ in years though they were famous for their banter and golf hangouts. Chuck though shows time and again that he’d pick his old friend.

Ahead of the Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor ceremony, Barkley showed just why he holds MJ in high regard. On the contrary, he remains critical of Scottie Pippen for dragging his feud with Jordan. Barkley finds it distasteful for very specific reasons he told ESPN Chicago before the event.

The Phoenix Suns legend was betting that Pippen will not show up to the event because of diminishing Jordan’s contribution to the Bulls. “I really don’t know if Scottie’s gonna show up… because Scottie’s been really mean-spirited talking about Michael couldn’t play, overrated, and blah-blah-blah…all that stuff was really, really unnecessary.” 

He firmly believes their generation of players owes Jordan. “Guys weren’t getting paid to wear shoes. That’s all because of Michael Jordan. “Even if you’re mad at the dude you gotta say, ‘thank you for making me all this money.'”

Speculation was rife if MJ or the Pip would reunite in the United Center for the event. Barkley previously wanted to be there for that “uncomfortable” reunion. Both were no-shows on January 12 though Jordan did send a video message.

Barkley, who expressed he regrets the fallout with Jordan previously, joked, “I know one thing about Michael, he don’t forgive and forget.” So he was sure if both do meet in front of thousands of eyeballs and act cordial, it was going to be fake.

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Pippen and Barkley were teammates at Houston too but infamously didn’t get along. Chuck still holds the opinion that the 6x NBA champion was not a good offensive player. On the other hand, he stated Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan are the three most important people in NBA history.

Charles Barkley is grateful to Michael Jordan

Chuck certainly threw it back when he said Magic and Bird “saved the NBA” by bringing the league out of the tape-delay era. “Michael took it to another level,” when he made NBA games primetime TV.

Jordan made NBA media rights a hot commodity and consequently earned a lot of players better endorsement deals. “Michael made all of us money,” Barkley said. “I made so much money from Nike because of Michael Jordan.”

On the Steam Room, Barkley recalled Jordan’s nifty tip to restructure his Nike contract to include stock options. In a separate interview this week, Barkley called his Nike stock deal the smartest decision he made since he earned 10x more than his original deal.

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Chuck is still very grateful for that but thinks Pippen is making it personal. “He burned down the whole house,” and created a situation where he can’t be in the same room as a person he doesn’t like, as per Charles Barkley.