Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley entered the league with the 1984 draft class, being the third and fifth overall picks respectively. However, their competition to be the best player in the country started before their time in the NBA. Charles Barkley revealed on The Mark Jackson Show that he realized MJ was better than him during the ’84 Olympic trials.
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120 of the best college players from around the country were brought in for the trials for the USA team that would feature in the ’84 LA games. In the talent pool full of future Hall of Famers, Barkley was pitted against Jordan for the top spot. The Chuckster recalled being informed by his coach that John Thompson wanted to see him after he made it to the last round of the trials.
“Charles was the second-best player at the Olympic trials, he should’ve made the team. Bobby Knight [then USA Coach] did not like him, he never gave us a reason. He just didn’t like Charles, but I just wanted Charles to know, Charles, you were amazing,” Chuck recalled being told. That was high praise coming Barkley’s way at such a young age.
His coach went one step ahead and declared that Barkley was the best player in the trials. However, the Chuckster wasn’t willing to accept that he deserved to be known as the best player out there. He told his coach, “Coach, I’m not the best. There’s this crazy a** dude from North Carolina. He’s kicking you’re a** and telling you he’s kicking you’re a** and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Barkley added that Jordan was faster than everyone and was very mentally strong as well. That was why it was very difficult to defeat him on the court.
Barkley and Jordan went on to have Hall of Fame careers and had a lot of great battles during their time in the league. While Chuck tried to compete against MJ for the honor of being known as the best player, he was outclassed by the Bulls legend.
Barkley’s final realization
Acknowledging someone else is a better player is a tough pill to swallow for any athlete. Even though Barkley was aware of Jordan’s talent for over a decade, the final realization settled in after their battle in the 1993 NBA Finals. Barkley and MJ faced off in the Finals and the Bulls legend showed no mercy to the Phoenix legend.
On episode six of The Last Dance, Barkley said, “In Game 2, I played as well as I could play, and Michael just outplayed me. That was probably the first time in my life that I felt like there was a better basketball player in the world than me, to be honest with you.” While Game 2 had him thinking like that, Game 3 was a different story.
Jordan had one of his worst shooting performances going 19 of 43 from the field for 44 points. After winning Game 3, Barkley said, “Man! Michael Jordan shot the ball 43 times! Damn, that’s unbelievable. He’s going to be icing his elbow, too.” He went on to regret those words.
Jordan came back in Game 4 with a 55-point performance, shooting 21 of 37 from the field. It took him two more games to close the series and complete his first three-peat.
