At one point, Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan were the closest of friends. From playing on the Dream Team together to squaring off in the 1993 NBA Finals to enjoying retirement side by side on the golf course, the two Hall of Famers were cut from the same cloth. But they haven’t spoken for over 10 years after Barkley stung Jordan with public criticism.
Now, former NBA star and TNT analyst Kenny Smith thinks it’s time for one of them to apologize.
TMZ caught up with Smith on two separate occasions recently. During the first conversation, Barkley’s Inside the NBA co-analyst jokingly said, “Apologize, Chuck. You were in the wrong, anyway. Chuck’s always in the wrong.” On a separate occasion, Smith took the question of the Barkley-Jordan relationship a little more seriously.
“I do think Charles was wrong,” Smith said. “Mike is doing a great job.”
The two stopped talking because Barkley criticized Jordan and how he was running the Bobcats (now Hornets) franchise as team owner. And the six-time champion didn’t care for the criticism.
“It’s a really unfortunate situation for me and him. But I’m going to do my job, first and foremost. Because I can’t criticize other coaches and general managers and give him a pass because he’s my best friend,” Barkley said in an interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks. “I just can’t do that. What I said was, ‘Michael’s got to surround himself with better people. And I worry about him being successful.’”
Barkley said he called out the people Jordan is surrounding himself with, and as a result, Jordan called Barkley and ripped into him—it was the last time the two spoke. Barkley added, “I thought it would blow over, to be honest with you.”
Both former players are as prideful as they were dominant on the court, according to Smith. But one day, hopefully, one will apologize, and they can bury the hatchet.
