Charles Barkley Snubs Ex-Best Friend Michael Jordan in Favor of Player Accused of S**ual Assualt in His List of “Top 5 Toughest Players to Guard”

On a video on the House of Highlights YouTube channel, NBA legend Charles Barkley was asked about the 5 toughest players he ever had to guard. Formerly close friends with Michael Jordan, Barkley has also played against some other NBA greats. He ended up snubbing the Bulls legend when answering. Instead, the Round Mound of Rebound included a polarizing figure in his top 5, Karl Malone.

The Utah Jazz legend was said to be involved with a 13-year-old minor back when he was 20, according to Yahoo Sports. Barkley played alongside both Malone and MJ during the 1992 Dream Team Olympics run. Since retiring in 2000, Charles Barkley has established himself as one of the most recognizable NBA analysts of all time.

Charles Barkley snubs Michael Jordan from list

Michael Jordan, a 6-time NBA winner, is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. On the other hand, despite Malone’s obvious talents, the NBA has generally strayed away from the player despite inducting him into the Hall of Fame in 2010.

Malone had said to have impregnated a 13-year-old girl named Gloria Bell back in 1983. Malone was a sophomore at Louisiana Tech University and was known to have agreed to an out-of-court settlement. Still, Barkley ended up including him in his list of the 5 toughest players he had to guard:

“Kevin McHale is the best player I ever played against. Popeye Jones gave me nightmarees. Larry Bird was amazing, and Karl Malone. Prime Tim Duncan would have been a great challenge.”

Malone is therefore viewed in a much different light in comparison to Barkley. Still, the two have an obvious similarity in the sense that they both ended their careers ringless.

This was in part due to the dominance of MJ’s Bulls during the 1990s. Barkley lost the 1993 NBA Finals while Malone lost the 1998 NBA Finals against Jordan’s Bulls.

Barkley and Jordan were once best friends

The two players enjoyed highly successful careers after joining the NBA as part of the 1984 draft. Barkley was the 5^th pick, while Michael Jordan was selected 3^rd overall.

In the years that followed, the two became the best of friends despite never actually playing together in the NBA. However, things changed when back in 2012, Barkley criticized MJ’s ownership of the then-Charlotte Bobcats.

While Barkley maintained that he was simply doing his job, the comments were not seen as fair by MJ, according to CBS News. Jordan had reportedly called Barkley to confront him after he criticized his role as the chairperson.

Barkley might be entitled to his opinion, but obviously lost a great friend because of his public criticism.  Of course, Jordan has only recently decided to sell Charlotte Hornets for a whopping sum of $3 billion.