USA Today via Reuters
Nov 22, 1993; Phoenix, AZ, USA; NBA superstars Michael Jordan (left) and Charles Barkley during the filming of a Nike shoe commercial at the Arizona Biltmore. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK
USA Today via Reuters
Nov 22, 1993; Phoenix, AZ, USA; NBA superstars Michael Jordan (left) and Charles Barkley during the filming of a Nike shoe commercial at the Arizona Biltmore. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via USA TODAY NETWORK
For over a decade we saw the best bromance in the NBA crumble. The estrangement between Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan has been a persistent shadow over the league’s lore. Their feud pre-dated the fallout of The Last Dance that fractured the Bulls dynasty nostalgia. It was that bad. Jordan Rules author Sam Smith said they’d never reconcile. Ahmad Rashad, their mutual friend, said a reconciliation was inevitable. Inside the NBA’s Kenny Smith told Chuck to extend the olive branch. Charles Oakley, who is not too fond of Chuckster, blamed him for the bad blood. Sir Charles went from regretting the breakup to getting tired of talking about it. But now, peace has returned to the NBA world.
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This weekend, the Chuck finally offered the update everyone has been waiting for: the ice is officially melting. The two legends who once shared Olympic gold and countless rounds of golf have reconciled. Bring the champagne!
Appearing on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Unleashed, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo had to ask Sir Charles where he stands with His Airness today. We thought he’d say he’s tired of that feud. Instead he dropped a major development so casually. “We had a conversation,” Barkley told Russo. “We’re gonna get together and play golf as soon as basketball is over.”
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These are the things that make you believe the good in the world. Though would it be too much to ask ESPN to follow their golf reunion with cameras? It’s so big, Mad Dog couldn’t contain his decibels. He admitted to Chuck he never expected this development.
“We’re not like Prince William and Prince Harry.”
The long feud is over. Charles Barkley tells @MadDogUnleashed that him and Michael Jordan are speaking again and they are playing golf when the NBA season ends. pic.twitter.com/YnAxcM5CYl
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) April 17, 2026
But Chuck, a consistent British royalist at heart, leaned into his signature humor. “We’re not like Prince William and Prince Harry,” Barkley quipped. “We always have a lot of love for each other. But we talked in the last 72 hours, we just decided to get together and play golf as soon as basketball is over.” This might actually give us hope for Diana’s boys too.
The last time Barkley and Jordan were in the same room together, it was the NBA Top 75 event in 2022. By all eyewitness accounts, the air was frosty. MJ allegedly went out of his way to not interact with Chuck. After that event, Charles also wanted to not talk about their estrangement in public again.
But now social media’s manifestations of that Mike & Chuck buddy cop dynamic has worked. (Next on the agenda, MJ and his Bulls teammates.)
The end of a tense era for Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan
To understand why this golf date is making headlines, one must look back at the roots of the discord. For years, Chuck and MJ were inseparable, iconic figures of the 1990s whose friendship was forged in the heat of the 1992 “Dream Team” run in Barcelona.
Jordan’s Bulls overthrew the Barkley-led Phoenix Suns in the 1993 Finals. But instead of a grudge, Chuck took the jokes about MJ beating him and being ringless in front of Oprah Winfrey like a champ. The notoriously competitive gamblers had wild poker and golf wagers. The rare moments of media-shy Jordan showing his humor was when he was making fun of Chuck’s infamously bad golf swing.
However, the honeymoon ended in 2012 when the Round Mound of Rebound, then a burgeoning analyst on Inside the NBA, offered a candid critique of Jordan’s management style as the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets.
Barkley questioned whether the Bulls legend had surrounded himself with enough people willing to “disagree” with him, famously remarking, “I love Michael, but he just has not done a good job.” For the hyper-competitive Jordan, who views any public critique through a lens of loyalty, that was the final straw.
Chuck confirmed he didn’t take that comment well. “He called me that night and went ballistic on me. He said ‘You supposed to be my best friend and you’re going to do that bulls–t,” Barkley continued. “I told him I have to do my job and you haven’t been a good GM.” Barkley saw his critique as unbiased. Jordan viewed it as betrayal.
What followed was a decade of public silence, broken only by occasional, often-reluctant comments from Chuck about the state of their friendship. Throughout those years, Barkley frequently expressed frustration over the narrative. He often complained to outlets that the public treated their falling out with the same soap-opera intensity as the rift between the British Princes. He claimed in 2023 he had to defend himself a minimum twice a year because… “they act like we Prince William and Prince Harry.”
Things have changed. Michael Jordan is now (somewhat) in Charles Barkley’s shoes as NBC’s special contributor. At that moment they had still not reconciled but Chuck was thrilled for MJ giving the new NBA generation his insight (and just as disappointed as us it was pre-recorded). It appears that the media closeness has fixed their relationship.
For the millions of fans, the reconciliation represents more than just a weekend of golf; it signals a return to the normalcy of the 90s basketball golden era. While the specifics of their 72-hour dialogue remain private, one thing is clear: the most famous bromance is officially putting down the spite and picking up the golf clubs.
