Michael did many incredible things during his NBA career, official or not. His Airness was a fierce competitor that didn’t hesitate to destroy his opponents to taste the sweet victory.
We have seen him competing in the most uninteresting thing you can think about, putting a big effort to get the win. Many players tried to challenge MJ to several competitions throughout the years, and he once went against his former friend Charles Barkley in an interesting competition.
The NBA official Youtube account recently shared an old video of MJ, Charles Barkley and Isiah Thomas prior to a game. It was probably an All-Star Game since other stars like Kevin McHale and Moses Malone were spotted in the video, too.
The video shows Thomas, Jordan and Barkley attempting free throws, but there was a catch. These kinds of free throws were backward, making things a lot harder for the participants. Thomas was the first one to try, making his shot.
Then, it was the turn of Jordan and Barkley. MJ was second, he dribbled the ball and took a look at the rim to make sure he wouldn’t miss it. Unfortunately, it didn’t go in, and the public lamented the miss.
Then, it was Chuck who tried it, and just like Jordan, he missed the shot. This meant that Zeke won the contest against the other two legends.
This was a time when there was no beef between Jordan and Thomas, and he was good friends with Barkley, which isn’t the case anymore. NBA players tend to carry out these interesting contests to have some fun and entertain the fans that went to see them.
It’s unclear if Michael took revenge on that, but he seemed to have fun while doing this. Perhaps, he took things personally after that, but we’ll never know. Even if they didn’t make the free throws, Mike and Chuck were very close to completing the challenge, which is still remarkable. Nobody knows how hard it is to make a regular free throw at an NBA level, let alone one when the rim is upside down.
