Charles Barkley was one of the greatest players in the NBA from the late 80s and 90s. He met Michael Jordan in the 1993 NBA Finals, but lost.
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Winning a championship is the ultimate goal for every player in every sport. It is especially difficult to win an NBA title. Going through 82 regular season games and then 4 playoff series and beating 29 other teams is a monumental task to do even once.
This is the reason why Michael Jordan is revered as the consensus GOAT. He’s the only player to have won 6 championships in the 3-point era. And he was also the best player in all those championship runs.
This is the very same reason that LeBron James has been hailed as a GOAT candidate. You can argue that James was the best player for at least 6 of his appearances at that stage. It takes a special mentality to always turn up for the occasion in this manner.
This is possibly what Jordan might have tried to tell us about, with regards to Chuck.
Michael Jordan says Charles Barkley can’t ride bikes because he doesn’t have a winning mentality
Jordan appeared to take the mickey out of his then good friend Chuck in an appearance on Oprah’s show:
“When you ride a motorcycle, you have to be a defensive rider. You’ve got to be a defensive driver. You don’t have time to talk on the phone, you don’t have time to eat.”
“You don’t have time to do a lot of things most people do every single day, which is more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. You’ve got to be really focused on seeing the traffic ahead. He (Barkley) doesn’t know about this. He’s never ridden a motorcycle. He never understands what it takes to be a winner.”
All of this was just a fancy method for Jordan to roast Barkley. We all knew that Chuck’s lack of championships was something he’d definitely bring up. It’s the schtick that Shaq has adopted in the studio since that time.
