Back in 2021, Charles Barkley showed up for an interview with The Tonight Show’s Conan O’Brien. A long-time rival and a former friend of Michael Jordan, Barkley was shown a clip from a shooting challenge that the two players engaged in around 30 years ago.
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Barkley was seemingly not taking the competition seriously. However, as one would expect, MJ was very focused on winning the Gameshow contest and he ended up winning as well.
When the clip was initially played by Conan, Barkley claimed that he did not even remember the incident until he saw the video. However, Chuck stated that the video showed why MJ was the obvious GOAT. The clip can be seen on Conan on TBS’s YouTube channel, Team Coco.
“That has to be 30 years old…We were in Japan obviously on a Nike deal. But you know, that’s why he is the GOAT man. He beat me but I had totally forgot about that,” Barkley said. Conan then pointed out how focused the Bulls legend was on winning the competition compared to the Chuckster, who was joking around as always.
“To say he [MJ] is so tightly wound is an understatement. That guy would, he would kill somebody to win, and that’s why he is the GOAT. That’s what separated, in my opinion, him and Kobe Bryant,” Chuck added.
Barkley then went on to compare Jordan with other greats of the game, such as Magic Johnson, LeBron James, and Tim Duncan. He claimed that while all the legends had a determination to win, the likes of Kobe and MJ were in a league of their own. “Michael and Kobe are the only two guys I know like, they would kill you to win a game. They had zero chill, them two guys,” Barkley told Conan.
This is not the first time Barkley has pointed out the extreme lengths Jordan would go to in order to win ball games. Testimonies like these from his peers have really fueled the myth of Air Jordan. Intriguing stories like these have been a staple in the NBA community for a long time now.
Kobe Bryant once claimed he was schooled by Michael Jordan
Bryant had always mentioned the kind of influence MJ had on his overall game and mindset, right from the beginning of his career. As a matter of fact, Kobe once revealed that he had been schooled by Jordan the first time he played against him, back in December, 1996.
“Getting schooled for a baseline dunk the first time I matched up with him. That was the coolest thing,” Kobe had said, after claiming that no words could describe his connection to MJ.
Kobe eventually talked about how he also wanted to win as many rings as he possibly could, before talking about his similarities with his idol, according to Bleacher Report. “What I take from [the comparison] is our competitiveness is second to none,” he said, effectively confirming exactly what Charles Barkley said about the two.
