Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley came into the NBA in the 1984 Draft as 3rd and 5th respectively. Thanks to their shared interests in golf and gambling, Barkley would become one of the fewest players in the NBA who could call themselves MJ’s friend. He once even lost ($53,700) over 1/6th of his yearly salary because he got into a fight with MJ’s enemies in Detroit, the Bad Boys. However, Chuck never cared about fines, rules, or even timetables, which is why Phil Jackson believed one couldn’t with a player like Barkley.
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Jordan would also troll Barkley’s work ethic occasionally, but that would never come in the way of their friendship.
Michael would even gift Charles a $20,000 watch during the 1993 NBA Finals, which the Suns would eventually lose to the Bulls in 6 games.
Phil Jackson once revealed why Charles Barkley could never win a championship
A 6ft 6’ power forward, Charles Barkley was a phenomenal offensive player who played too big for his size. The Round Mound of Rebounds would have achieved a lot more in his career if he listened to one coach in his 3 teams, or had the discipline of somebody like his best friend.
Phil Jackson once talked about it in 1991 as he saw Barkley, who was still in his coat talking to Jordan 50 minutes before an NBA game.
“A great, great player, maybe unstoppable,” Jackson said according to Jordan Rules (by Sam Smith in 1991). “But he’s got no discipline, none. You can’t win with a player like that.”
Jackson, then, had a rule for all the Bulls players to be in the practice facility by 6:00 p.m. if the game was at 7.30. Jim Lynam, who was the Sixers coach then, had to drop that rule because Barkley would never arrive on time. And it did not change until he retired from the game in 2000, playing his last year with the Rockets.
Barkley and Jordan would not be friends for long
After being best of friends for years, Jordan and Barkley would go through a rough patch after Barkley criticized the Charlotte Hornets man’s ownership and front office skills on television.
“And what I said, I think that he don’t have enough people around him that are gonna tell him, ‘No,’” Barkley said in an interview with CBS earlier this year. “And he got really offended, and we haven’t spoken.”
Chuck believes he was just doing his job as an analyst whenever he criticized ‘His Airness’ as a team owner, so the Bulls’ legend should not have taken it personally. The Chuckster wants Jordan to call him up and patch things up.
