Charlie Sheen’s Untold on Netflix has become a hit, thanks to the insights into his wild, eventful life and the challenges he faced on his road to fame. The NBA community has taken an interest as well, with Sheen being asked about his friendship with Michael Jordan during a recent appearance on the All The Smoke podcast as part of his media tour to promote the docuseries.
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The hosts of the show, Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, had plenty of other questions for Sheen, too. They wanted to know what it was like to star in hit movies such as Platoon and Major League. But when basketball podcasters have a chance to get inside stories about Jordan, they rarely let it pass.
Sheen happily shared how their relationship began when he was randomly selected to play against Jordan in a basketball game on a TV show.
“This opportunity just fell out of the sky. There was this show, a short-lived show, pitting actors against athletes in their respective sports. And the card we drew was Jordan, and in a two-on-one,” Sheen said. “It was me and my dad. So, we were just like, sure, why not?”
Charlie’s dad, Martin Sheen, was also a famous actor growing up. They were also massive sports fans. The two would play basketball against each other when Charlie was a kid. So, they decided to take up the opportunity and make the most of it.
It may have been two-on-one, but it was still against an all-time great. Still, that day, Charlie was hot and shot the Sheens to victory. Jordan still denies to this day that it ever happened, despite it being on video.
Soon, Sheen started making enough money to start going to Jordan’s games for the Chicago Bulls. And their relationship only grew from there. “I would fly out to Bulls home games… Then we worked together on a commercial campaign. We did Hanes, we sold underwear together,” Sheen detailed.
“There was a time when I would text him, and this dude would literally respond in like 15 or 20 seconds,” Sheen added.
It must have been a pretty cool thing to brag about. But Sheen insisted that he never did anything of the sort. He would only use that in very specific instances when his other friends weren’t answering his texts for a while.
In this sense, it was more of a strong tool he could use to get his friend’s attention.
“I never did it in front of people to show off, like, ‘Watch how quickly MJ gets back to me.’ But I was just like, wow. But I would use it like that’s now the bar. And I would tell my friends, ‘Dude, it’s been like 4 hours. Michael Jordan responds in 20 seconds.’ So, it was a valuable tool for me,” Sheen joked.
All in all, it sounds like Charlie and Michael developed a genuine friendship and still keep in touch today. Over time, though, Sheen drifted away from attending Bulls games and began following baseball more closely as a Cincinnati Reds fan. Still, that moment with Jordan remains a pretty unforgettable memory for him.
