Friendship between two sporting legends explained

 

Sounds bizarre, isn't it? When two big cheese of their respective sports become close friends, then sparks of a great friendship is bound to fly. But what exactly went wrong between the two? And why did a lawyer give this weird advice to Tiger Woods? Uncover the truth with us…

Michael Jordan, the greatest Chicago Bulls Legend, is known to have an inflated ego, often to the point of violence, and is not unknown to his controversies. His close friend and a contemporary NBA. Legend, the 1993 MVP for Phoenix Suns, Charles Barkley, who later became a close friend of Tiger, is no better, with his constant run-ins with the law. 

With two such humongous notorious lousy role models, how would Tiger fare any better?

MJ and Charles were both avid gamblers, and although MJ is one of the NBA's GOATs, he has been arguably called a jerk by his teammates and was plain mean to people in general. With MJ being a pro at womanizing, it changed the life of Tiger Woods, who idolized him right from childhood.

Tiger Woods, aged 14 years, compared himself to MJ, and as he rose to his sporting pinnacle, it garnered attention from his one-time idol, Michael Jordan. They were both sponsored by Nike, the sportswear behemoth, which opened the doors to a solid blossoming friendship. They regularly attended each other's sporting events, singing praises of each other in interviews; this was an extraordinary bond between two of the world's greatest athletes.

An interesting thing to note here is that MJ & Charles are not on talking terms anymore, according to Charles Barkley's interview in February 2023 on the same, which is 10 years since they last spoke.

A solo devastating car crash in California unravelled this friendship leading to Tiger ghosting the two, even though he was considered a great friend to both these NBA legends. This was probably to save his friends from the possible embarrassment of the various scandals of Tiger Woods' extramarital affairs and high-stakes gambling that shocked the world when it all tumbled out of the closet.

And the reason we presume why Tiger’s lawyer may have asked him to stay away from MJ is because he firmly believed that MJ could be a bad influence on Tiger and harm his public image.

But MJ never left and has been a great friend to Tiger Woods. Although MJ maintained the closeness between him and Woods, it has not been the same, and that is probably because Tiger grew out of the friendship since MJ and Barkley are almost a decade older than him. Well, whatever the reason, we wish both the best.