told \u201cWaddle and Silvy\u201d<\/a> on March 1, 2012. \u201cOne thing about being famous is the people around you, you pay all their bills, so they very rarely disagree with you because they want you to pick up the check. They want to fly around on your private jet, so they never disagree with you. I don\u2019t think Michael has hired enough people around him who will disagree.\u201d<\/p>\nBarkley, who has never been afraid to offer an opinion, did not stop there at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Michael, but he just has not done a good job,\u201d Barkley said in the 2012 interview. \u201cEven though he is one of my great friends, I can\u2019t get on here and tell you he\u2019s done a great job. He has not done a great job, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words got back to Jordan, and the friendship froze for years until Coleman stepped in. On Wednesday, Barkley sounded happy to be seeing Jordan soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ll be fine,\u201d Barkley said when asked if the relationship may still be chilly. \u201cI tell people it\u2019s not like we\u2019re Prince Harry and Prince William, who hate each other. Honestly, I think we both missed each other, because we\u2019ve had this conversation with other friends, and we\u2019re both too stubborn to pick up the phone, to be honest with you. But I think both parties missed each other a great deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, man, I\u2019m not one of those guys. I ain\u2019t trying to prove no point, or I ain\u2019t got no animosity, one thing we both said: I got a lot of love for you, and you got a lot of love for me. Like Vince said, \u2018This thing has been silly and stupid, but both of y\u2019all are too damn stubborn to pick up the phone, and y\u2019all need to get y\u2019all asses together and play golf and bury this thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The news of a reconciliation was received well by Silverman and Waddle, who always felt partly responsible for causing friction in the relationship by asking the question that created the rift between the two NBA Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n
Aside from Coleman\u2019s prodding, Barkley, who is 63 and has worked as an NBA commentator for decades, noted that part of the reason he feels the iciness is thawing is because of both men\u2019s respective ages. Jordan, who is also 63, sold the Charlotte franchise in 2023 and has found success as a NASCAR owner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re closer to death than we are alive,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cI used to always use a golf analogy. I\u2019m on the back nine. I hope I\u2019m on like 9, 10 or 11, but you never know. You can be on 17 or 18 tomorrow, the way the world works.\u201d<\/p>\n
In describing how much he missed the relationship with Jordan, Barkley said that the legendary Chicago Bulls guard has \u201calways been a great friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe actually gave me some of the best advice financially,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cI was making about $3 million a year from Nike in my heyday. And he said to me \u2014 first of all, I have no idea how he got a hold of my contract, how much money I was making \u2014 he says, \u2018I want you to stop taking so much cash and take stock options.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I have no idea what that means. Michael\u2019s a great businessman. I said, \u2018I have no idea what that means.\u2019 So, I take it to my people, I said, \u2018Hey, I was playing golf with Michael. He says he doesn\u2019t want me to take $3 million. He wants me to take a million and take the rest in stock options.\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018Well, how good of a basketball player do you think he\u2019s gonna be? And how much shoes you think he\u2019s gonna sell?\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019ve never seen anything like it.\u2019 This is early in my career, too. I said, \u2018I\u2019ve never seen anybody this good at basketball.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Barkley\u2019s financial advisors told him it was risky to take the stock options, but he did because of Jordan\u2019s advice and believes he probably made \u201canother $50 million because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the future, to be honest with you,\u201d Barkley said, while describing what it would mean to have Jordan back in his life.<\/p>\n
Barkley never held it against Waddle, a former wide receiver for the Chicago Bears, or Silverman, a longtime Chicago radio personality, for asking him the original questions that upset Jordan. He has developed a friendship with both men and frequently appears on their radio show during the year to discuss a wide variety of topics.<\/p>\n
The conversation with Jordan clearly pleased Barkley, and he relayed how he knew his old friend was still the same person he had always been.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing he said, I could tell he hasn\u2019t changed, cause when he invited (me), he said, \u2018Come down and play golf.\u2019 He said, \u2018You\u2019re a rich guy. Come play with the richer guy.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Some things never change. \u2026 That\u2019s 100 percent Michael Jordan speaking to me like he used to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Barkley was asked if there was any chance that while the pair reconnected in the coming weeks down in Florida, the men would reach out to Tiger Woods to patch up their relationship with the golf legend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never understood, to be honest with you, the whole Tiger situation,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cNumber one, I called his agent (Mark Steinberg). I don\u2019t even have Tiger\u2019s number. I said, \u2018Man, let\u2019s let the young guy know I love him. I hope he\u2019s gonna be all right. I wish him nothing but the best.\u2019 \u2026 I got nothing but love for him. He disowned us after one of those car accidents. I\u2019ve not talked to him in probably whenever \u2014 I can\u2019t even remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barkley shared his experience of having a brother who struggled with addiction in answering a question about Woods, who was recently arrested<\/a> and charged with DUI after a rollover crash on Jupiter Island, Florida.<\/p>\n\u201cMy brother, who died at a young age, was an addict,\u201d Barkley said. \u201cAnd I have great sympathy for anybody in that situation. But like I say, Tiger left us. We didn\u2019t do any(thing). I don\u2019t turn on my friends when they do something considered wrong or make a mistake. I wish him nothing but the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan have a former MLB All-Star to thank for ending the 14-year silence that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5552,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-625323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}