It’s well-documented that Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan have not been on speaking terms for some time. Barkley has spoken at length about an argument the two had after he critiqued the way Jordan ran the Charlotte Hornets, which did not sit well with the six-time NBA champion.
Barkley has expressed his desire for the two to reconcile for years, although he recently made clear that the ball is in Jordan’s court for that to happen. And in a recent appearance on the “All The Smoke” podcast, Barkley revealed what Jordan explicitly said to him that led to their falling out with one another.
“That would be on his end, Matt,” Barkley said at the 1:33:41 mark of the above video. “He was my best friend at the time, and I love the guy and I miss the guy. But you know, I gotta do my job.”
Barkley then told the now-famous story of how he said that Jordan surrounds himself with too many yes men in his role as the owner of the Hornets, and that he thinks it’s unfair to critique others while he lets some folks slide.
“And he went ballistic,” Barkley said. “And he called me — that’s the last thing I heard was, ‘motherf*cker, f*ck you, you’re supposed to be my boy and blah blah blah.’ And I said, man, I gotta do my job. And we haven’t spoken since that night.”