NBA legends Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan could soon be singing “Reunited, and it feels so good.”
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After years of silence and the ending of their close friendship, the long-standing freeze between Barkley and Jordan is finally thawing out.
During an appearance on “Mad Dog Unleashed” with Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on Friday, Barkley, a current analyst on Inside the NBA, revealed that he and Jordan are speaking again. Also, they plan to get together on the golf course when the NBA concludes.
“We had a conversation,” Barkley told Russo. “We’re going to get together and play golf as soon as basketball is over.”
“Wow! Charles, that’s a big story!” Russo responded with enthusiasm, “Because he was mad at you!”
“Hey, we’re not like Prince William and Prince Harry,” Barkley joked. “We always had a lot of love for each other. But we talked, actually, in the last probably 72 hours. We decided to get together and play golf as soon as basketball is over.”
Their long relationship came to a screeching halt when Barkley criticized Jordan’s track record as owner of the Charlotte Bobcats (Now Charlotte Hornets).
“I think the biggest problem has been I don’t know if [Jordan] has hired enough people around him who he will listen to,” Barkley said on ESPN Chicago’s Waddle & Silvy in 2012. “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.”
“I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job,” Barkley continued. “Even though he is one of my great friends, I can’t get on here and tell you he’s done a great job. He has not done a great job, plain and simple.”
And you know that Jordan took that personally. The Chicago Bulls icon called Barkelay that night and gave him a piece of his mind.
“I remember he called me that night. He went ballistic on me, telling me, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to be my best friend, and you’re going to say that BS about me? Blah, blah, blah.” He was furious,” Charles recalled.
Eventually, a Cold War of silence ensued between the two former friends that lasted for almost 15 years.
As the years passed, Barkley publicly admitted that he regretted that he and Jordan were on bad terms.
“The guy was like a brother to me for, shoot, 20-something years,” Barkley said in an interview on ESPN Radio in 2020. “At least 20-something years. And I do, I feel sadness. But to me, he’s still the greatest basketball player ever. I wish him nothing but the best. But, there’s nothing I can do about it, brother.”
For more than four decades, Barkley and Jordan’s careers have paralleled each other. They both were drafted in the 1984 NBA Draft, which is considered one of the best draft classes of all-time. Jordan was drafted by the Bulls at number 3, and the Philadelphia 76ers chose Barley with the 5th pick. Barkley and Jordan were signed to Nike as signature athletes, making it a worldwide brand.
In 1992, Jordan and Barkley were the two biggest stars on the “Dream Team,” which won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
Jordan bested Barkley in the 1993 NBA Finals when his Bulls defeated Barkley’s Phoenix Suns.
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