Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley came into the NBA at the same time as one another. The respective 3rd and 5th picks of their 1984 Draft class, they would both establish themselves as superstars early on their career. Along the way, they’d form a deep friendship as well with it carrying forward decades after they had gotten drafted. Unfortunately, this friendship would come to an end a couple months after Chuck made unrelated comments about MJ getting fined by the NBA.
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Jordan may have been the greatest basketball player on the court but off it, while in the front office, he’s been nothing special. The 6x NBA champion campaigned for Kwame Brown to get drafted while being the President of Basketball Operations for the Washington Wizards and after buying the Charlotte Hornets, has failed to make a title contender in the city over the past 13 years.
His shortcomings as an owner of a franchise led to Charles taking shots at his decisions. Ultimately, it would be these words that led to the end of their friendship.
Charles Barkley on Michael Jordan getting fined
The NBA entered a lockout season in 2011-12 and also issued a statement saying that front office members and owners who talked about the lockout would be fined $100,000. Michael Jordan seemingly didn’t care about this and opened up about the struggles of the lockout season along with name-dropping Andrew Bogut and the need to start revenue sharing.
The league slapped the Hornets’ owner with a $100,000 fine but Charles Barkley, a close friend of MJ’s at the time, didn’t seem to be too bothered with this.
“Well, it’s a drop in the bucket for sure. I don’t like all those rules about not talking about the lockout,” said Chuck on the Waddle and Silvy Show. “I mean, what else are you going to be talking about? There’s nothing else happening. The notion that nobody is going to ask you or talk about the lockout is silly.”
Sir Charles and Jordan aren’t on speaking terms any longer
Charles Barkley, about 6 months after giving his take on Michael, went on a radio show and talked about how mediocre of an owner his friend was. He also claimed that MJ was surrounded by a slew of ‘yes-men’ who agreed with everything he said, resulting in his franchise staying in a state of stagnancy.
Michael got wind of this and didn’t appreciate this in the slightest. Since this day in 2012, the two have not been on speaking terms with one another. They actively avoided each other during gatherings where they’re both at, such as the NBA’s 75th anniversary event at last year’s All-Star weekend. Given the magnitude of their superstardom, this could be labelled as the ‘biggest NBA feud’ in history.
