If you’ve been watching The Last Dance like almost every other basketball fan has every Sunday, you may not have realized the Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan used to be really great friends, but are no longer on speaking terms with one another. Mostly on Jordan’s side.

Charles Barkley considered he and Michael Jordan to be brothers until a rift between the two occurred in 2012. Unfortunately that 30-year friendship may never heal. It doesn’t seem as time will repair the damage that’s been done it.

Read how Jordan and Barkley’s friendship began and ended.

Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley’s Friendship

The two NBA superstars first became close when they came together with nine other NBA legends on the 1992 Olympic Men’s Basketball Team otherwise known as the Dream Team. The team would go on to win the gold medal together with Barkley leading the team in scoring and Jordan the face of the NBA.

The two deepened their relationship over the next season and ended up facing each other in the 1993 NBA Finals. The two would spend a lot of friendship on the golf course even infamously getting together and playing 48 holes of golf before game four of the 1993 NBA Finals.

The usually unflappable and confident Barkley, that season’s NBA MVP, even admitted that Jordan was the better player. During those 1993 NBA Finals between his Suns and Jordan’s Bulls, which Chicago won in six games, was when Barkley realized that there was indeed a player who was better than him, and it was Jordan. 

“the first time in my life that I felt like there was a better basketball player in the world than me”

This may seem like Barkley just telling his truth, but also represented his respect for his friend Jordan.

The two would travel together, go out and play pool against one another, and Barkley would make an appearance in the Jordan 1996 basketball classic movie Space Jam.

Ten years later, Barkley and Jordan’s friendship was still going strong. In 2006, the two players were guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show and displayed their affection and chemistry for one another. They revealed the depths of their friendship and roasted each other to the delight of the studio audience.

“I love him.” Barkley replied to Oprah when he asked him if he loved Michael.

In a 2005 interview with Oprah, he certainly saw them as part of a unit, a unit that made the game what it is today: 

“When you look back in our era—Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley—we earned what we got,” Jordan said. “I don’t mean to demean the young kids because I think it’s something that they have to learn and hopefully they will learn, [but] when corporate America came to us, we had a game that could validate their admiration. Now, [players] get that before they play one game. … I think it sets a bad work ethic. When you get something so easily, you’re not going to work as hard.”

Barkley’s Mouth Collides with MJ’s Pride

The split occurred when in 2012 Barkley spoke in a radio interview about how Jordan ran the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets), and was critical of the team’s leadership.

Barkley said that the people around Jordan wouldn’t be honest with him, which impacted his ability to run the team (Jordan had hired friends and family for top positions at the franchise).

“One of the reasons I don’t trust the media is you can’t have a double standard for guys you like and dislike,” Barkley said. “I said Michael wasn’t doing a good job – he’s doing a great job now, they’ve gotten better, they’ve made some great signings – but they weren’t doing good and I thought he didn’t have good people around him.”

Barkley has been an analyst with Inside the NBA, and part of his job is to critique different teams. He felt that part of the reason he and Jordan were friends were that they were always honest with each other, which makes it even sadder that this is what pushed them apart. He also stated that in his work he is meant to be objective, and he would undermine that objectivity and integrity if he praised Jordan simply because they were ‘brothers.’ 

Recently, Barkley spoke about their friendship with reporters. “We were great friends forever,” Barkley said of their nearly 30 year friendship. “I miss Michael. I love Michael. I wish him nothing but the best. He’s the greatest basketball player ever. But obviously, he didn’t take kindly to some things I said about his management skills, and that’s unfortunate. But I gotta do my job.”

Jordan hasn’t responded to those comments.

Unfortunately, their rift had not only affected their other personal relationship, but may have put pressure on their respective marriages and most certainly made things especially awkward with the mutual friends that the two NBA superstars shared. Tiger Woods was one of those relationships that suffered from the not-so-friendly fire. Barkley and Jordan’s friendship and estrangement are not unlike a marriage that falls apart.

For his callous and controversial reputation, Barkley continues to publicly put his softer feelings out when asked about his former friend: “I love Michael. I miss Michael’s friendship. He was a great friend to me for a long period of time and I love him and miss him like a brother.” Barkley admitted to Rolling Stone back in 2016. “I would love to mend that relationship, but we just happened to be at the same place and took a picture together. We are not back to where we used to be.”

Don’t hold your breath

For as much as Barkley treasures his past friendship with Jordan, the former NBA MVP for the Phoenix Suns has finally come to a place of peace, recently telling CBS Sports about their potential reconciliation:

“That’s never going to happen. You can let that go. Stop it. We’re good. Michael Jordan is great. Chuck is doing great.” Barkley said referring to him in third person. “I’m too stubborn for that. I’m never going to admit that I’m wrong if I’m not wrong. That’s never going to happen.”

If we’re going to take one thing away from The Last Dance is that Michael is extremely competitive, prideful and due to that, “Michael Jordan hangs on to his grudges for a long, long time,” but Barkley isn’t exactly without pride and stubbornness either.