Years Before Burning Bridges, Charles Barkley Revealed Michael Jordan’s “Shocking” Scope:?”His?Knees…”

It is not often that two best friends collide on the NBA Finals stage. However, in 1993, that was certainly the case. Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns battled Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who were coming off back-to-back championships. While things between the two are less than ideal now, at the time, the two were best friends. Things turned sideways between the pair in 2012. Before all the commotion, however, Barkley shared an interesting tidbit about His Airness’ durability.

While mental exhaustion and management issues caused Jordan to retire for 2 years, overall, MJ was very durable. Over his 15-year career, Mike played all 82 games 10 times. For comparison, LeBron James has one such season. The truth behind Jordan’s durability finally came to light in the book Michael Jordan: The Life, courtesy of Barkley.

The true ‘scope’ of Michael Jordan and his knees

Scoping is a regular procedure that most athletes undergo. While remarkably simple, the process is a necessary one. However, MJ was the anomaly. As Charles explained in the book, “The shocking thing is that he hadn’t needed more ‘scopes before on his knee, considering the jumping and the running he did for thirteen years.”

As Barkley described, the process is exceptionally important for athletes. “Every basketball, football, hockey and baseball player in the world could probably have at least one knee cleaning out with a ‘scope’,” Barkley detailed.

Barkley understood that the process wasn’t ground-breaking and wouldn’t cure major problems. He said, “That doesn’t cure the tendinitis or the arthritis or restore the cartilage.”?However, the value of the process was still immense, according to the 11x NBA All-Star.

Citing the lack of scope as a possible reason, Chuck explained how that might have been the cause of Jordan’s Wizards years. He said, “And as amazing as an athlete Michael is, his knees just wouldn’t cooperate with him when he came back to play with the Wizards. ” While Barkley spoke at length about his friend in the book, things turned sour between the two more than a decade ago.

The criticism that created the Jordan-Barkley rift

While the camaraderie is well-known, Barkley got a $20,000 earring as a gift, so is the split. The two golf enthusiasts were extremely close friends, but the split came around 2012. Jordan received a lot of criticism for his role as an executive in Charlotte.

While fans have often criticized him, it was Barkley echoing those sentiments that effectively ended the friendship. Chuck, on Live TV, said, “I do not know if he is ever going to be successful because of the people around him. I think he hires too many of his friends, and your friends don’t ever tell you no.”

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The comments did not sit well with MJ and he called Barkley, furious. “He went ballistic. And he called me, and that’s the last thing I heard was ‘motherf***er, f**k you! You supposed to be my boy.’ And I said, ‘Man, I gotta do my job.’ And we haven’t spoken since that night, and that was probably close to ten years ago.” Fans do hope that the two can follow in the footsteps of Kobe and Shaq.

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