Michael Jordan was good friends with Charles Barkley. The two were fierce rivals on the court, but shared a close bond outside of it. Barkley and Jordan never played together in the NBA, but they were a part of the 1992 ‘Dream Team’ that won the gold medal in the Olympics.

The pair was once close to each other, and their appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, garnered their friendship millions of fans. However, it has not been smooth sailing for the two Hall of Famers, ever since Barkley made comments on Jordan’s management of the then Charlotte Bobcats.

Barkley is very outspoken and is loved by fans around the world. He works as an NBA analyst at TNT, for a show named ‘Inside the NBA.’ The much-loved friendship turned south when Barkley gave his honest opinion on Jordan’s decisions as Charlotte’s owner. He asked him to stop hiring too many of his friends at the top level, who would just ‘nod’ to hold their positions.

This obviously did not please Michael Jordan and he has stopped talking to him since. Barkley even tried to bury the hatchet with MJ, but the latter just would not be convinced. 

Charles Barkley misses Michael Jordan and their friendship

The 1993 MVP spoke to The Athletic in April and opened up on the incident with MJ. He expressed his disheartened feelings and was rather not happy about the treatment he received for being honest with his opinions.

“Don’t you have friends who you’re not sure how they’re gonna react when you’re honest with them? Especially somebody on his level. And like I say, hey, I love the dude. He’s the best I’ve ever seen,” Barkley said. “It’s unfortunate the way things went down. But I’m going to always try to do my job. And actually, my criticism was about the people around him. I thought the people he hired around him were too many yes men.”

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He got deep down and did not hold back anything. There is no way you can hate this man. He is a great player of his own, but he values his friendship more. He did not have to make these comments to win Jordan back. But, it was something he had to get out of his heart. 

He further added emotional comments on Michael Jordan and the way he reacted to his comments. “We were great friends forever. I miss Michael. I love Michael. He’s the greatest basketball player ever. But obviously he didn’t take kindly to some things I said about his management skills. And that’s unfortunate. That’s unfortunate. But I’ve got to do my job.”

Another stern point he made was that he has to do his job. The man has great integrity. Maybe he knew if he made the comments on the Charlotte Bobcats, he might lose his friendship with Michael Jordan. But, he could not be dishonest to his job and went along with expressing what he felt from his heart. Above all, he wants the best for Jordan, as a friend, as a brother.