When Charles Barkley jokingly trolled Michael Jordan in an appearance on 'Oprah'
Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley used to be really good friends. Jordan and Barkley, in fact, trolled each other during an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" back in 2005.
With Barkley going viral on Twitter over the past few days, a video of the two on the famous talk show 17 years ago has resurfaced. A Twitter thread (h/t SB Nation) about how Chuck is one of the world's funniest people included Barkley explaining why people think Jordan is handsome. Barkley said:
"Everybody is kissing his butt, everybody is kissing his butt the whole time. People always talk about, 'he's handsome,' but he's not handsome. He's not handsome. I think anytime you get 3, 4, 500 million dollars, you become handsome."
Here Charles Barkley telling Oprah why people think Michael Jordan is “handsome”: twitter.com/jwimys/status/… https://t.co/HSdGe3x73e
Michael Jordan retaliated by roasting Charles Barkley's terrible golf swing. Jordan explained why he did not play golf with Chuck back then, saying that Barkley's swing was good before getting the yips and developing his stop-and-go swing.
"Nobody plays with him because we know how much. ... You used to be so good and now, if he hits it anywhere off the tee or near the water, we say, 'good shot.' And that's bad."
The two NBA legends used to be tight back then, even during their playing days. They were teammates with the "Dream Team" and faced each other in the 1993 NBA Finals. Jordan and the Chicago Bulls beat Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in six games.
What happened to the friendship of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley?
Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley stopped being friends when the latter criticized the former's ownership of the Charlotte Hornets.
In an article by Greg Joyce of the New York Post (h/t Fox Sports) in 2020, Barkley revealed that Jordan stopped talking to him in 2012. The rift was due to Barkley's comments about Jordan's front office decisions. Barkley said:
"The thing that bothered me the most about that whole thing. I don't think that I said anything that bad. I'm pretty sure I said, 'As much as I love Michael, until he stops hiring them kiss-asses, and his best friends, he's never going to be successful as a general manager.'
"And I remember pretty much verbatim, I said that. And the thing that really p**sed me off about it later is Phil Jackson said the exact same thing."
Chuck spoke about his broken friendship with MJ in an interview with Shaun Powell for NBA.com back in March.
Barkley revealed that he does not expect Jordan to repair their friendship because of his stubbornness. However, he misses spending time with "His Airness" and still considers him a brother, stating:
"We're both stubborn. Look, I love the dude like a brother and wish him nothing but the best. I got no animosity toward him. I miss his friendship."