Charles Barkley called out Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods for their ‘cheap’ behaviour during a 2005 appearance on The Oprah Show.
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Barkley and MJ are 2 of the greatest talents to have ever graced the hardwood. Tons of NBA fans still remember Mike’s play during the 90s, but a lot fewer of them remember Barkley for the same reasons.
That’s because since his retirement, Chuck has been working as a studio analyst for TNT. And Barkley has absolutely killed it as a sportscaster, going on to attain even more fame as an analyst of sorts on Inside the NBA.
It’s gotten to a point where you would struggle to think of 5 people more entertaining than him on TV. Well actually, you can scratch that and just call him the biggest draw for casual NBA fans on a middling regular season night.
Much of this reputations stems from the unfiltered fashion in which Chuck goes right after anyone sitting opposite him. Not even MJ was spared the blushes when the duo appeared on the Oprah show together in 2005.
“Michael Jordan is cheap, everybody says that”: Charles Barkley on the Bulls legend’s ‘miserliness’
Barkley found the perfect opening to go all in on the man who’d eliminated him from the 1993 NBA Finals when Oprah Winfrey raised a question about whether Jordan was really a miser:
“I say that? Everybody says that. He spends all his money on clothes! All I got is all this cheap Jordan stuff. Let me tell all of you a story.”
“I was gonna give a homeless guy some money one night, and he slaps my hand. And he says ‘Well if he can say do you have any spare change, he can say Welcome to McDonald’s, how can I help you?'”
Oprah seemed to be on Jordan’s side on this issue. She noted how hustling for loose change from strangers is similar to working a real job. Barkley came back at her with another story of his that illustrates just how forthright the man has always been:
“I stopped one day and gave this guy like $100. He had a sign that said ‘No lying here, folks, want money for alcohol!’ And I thought that sign was so funny, I pulled over and gave him a hundred dollars. That was a great sign, he didn’t lie!”
Charles Barkley wouldn’t stop there either. Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer on the planet at the time, was a mutual friend of the two. Chuck went on and called Woods a cheap fellow as well.
