The pair were said to be close friends until Barkley criticised Jordan’s role as owner of NBA franchise Charlotte Bobcats in a 2012 interview.
Barkley claimed that Jordan was not doing a good job, causing the NBA legend to call the then TNT pundit to confront him about the comments.
“He went ballistic, and he called me and the last thing I heard was ‘motherf**ker, f*** you, you’re supposed to be my boy,'” Barkley recounted on the All The Smoke podcast.
“I said ‘man, I’ve got to do my job.’ We haven’t spoken since that night and that was probably close to 10 years ago.”
Back in November of last year, Barkley admitted that he wanted to put the incident in the past and make up with Jordan, although no meeting has been forthcoming.
“I said I didn’t think Michael Jordan had enough support around him to be successful. I said it and I had no problem saying it because it was the truth. He took offense and called me out. It wasn’t a pleasant conversation, and we haven’t spoken since,” Barkley explained.
“It’s a really unfortunate situation for him and for me. But I first and foremost do my job. Because I can’t criticiz
The commentator said to Bleacher Report in November that he wanted to “get past the bullsh**” with his former best friend, but insisted that Jordan would have to swallow his pride and reach out first.
“That’s on his end,” he said. “He was my best friend at the time, and I love the guy and I miss the guy.”
