It doesn’t look like Charles Barkley’s long-running feud with Michael Jordan will be ending anytime soon.
The two were once rivals on the court and close friends off of it ― but fell out after their playing days ended, and Barkley criticized Jordan’s moves as the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats (now the Hornets).
“And what I said, I think that he don’t have enough people around him that are gonna tell him, ‘No,’” Barkley said on “60 Minutes” on Sunday night. “And he got really offended, and we haven’t spoken.”
That was more than 10 years ago ― but the longtime “Inside the NBA” analyst said he was just doing his job.
“I’m gonna do my job,” he said. “Because I have zero credibility if I criticize other people in the same boat and not criticize my best friend.”
Jon Wertheim of “60 Minutes” asked Sir Charles if he ever thought of calling Jordan to clear the air.
“I got an ego too, Jon. You can’t be great at something ― that doesn’t give you a right to be a jerk,” he said.
“Do you think you’ll resolve this eventually?” Wertheim pressed.
“He got my number,” Barkley said.
Jordan is reportedly on the verge of selling his majority stake in the Hornets.
The comments that set him off were likely from a 2012 interview Barkley did with ESPN’s Chicago radio station.
“I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job,” Barkley said on “The Waddle & Silvy Show.”
He said it was likely due to the people around Jordan.
“One 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,” Barkley said. “They want to fly around on your private jet so they never disagree with you. I don’t think Michael has hired enough people around him who will disagree.”
He spoke to Jordan once more after that… but it wasn’t a pleasant conversation.
“He went ballistic,” Barkley recalled on Showtime’s “All The Smoke” last month. “He called me and that’s the last thing I heard was, ‘Motherfucker fuck you, you’re supposed to be my boy.’ I said, ‘Man, I gotta do my job.’ We haven’t spoken since that night.”
