"I asked him, 'When did you start playing defense?'" - When Michael Jordan laughed at Charles Barkley trying to defend him

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Michael Jordan recalled the one instance Charles Barkley attempted to guard him and failed miserably. The legendary shooting guard broke down the play with TNT Sports following a matchup when his Chicago Bulls faced Barkley and the Philadelphia 76ers.

“One moment I can pick playing with Charles is when we played against Philly in the playoffs. I guess I got into a rhythm, and I had like 40 points, and I hear Charles yelling in the huddle, ‘Who is guarding this guy? Somebody has to guard this guy; that’s alright, I will guard him.’ We continue playing, and I got into a switch, and Charles jumps out and guards me,” MJ said.

“I know Charles is not a defensive stopper, so the first thing he does is breaks down in his defensive position. His hands were up, and everything looked technically right, and I just laughed and asked him, ‘When did you start playing defense, and who taught you how to get into a defensive stance?’ He is the type of guy who would take on a challenge like that even though he was not up for the challenge. He didn’t care, and that is him,” he added.

Defense wasn’t Barkley’s forte

Barkley and Jordan matched up multiple times during their careers, but rarely guarded one another individually, mainly due to the difference in positions as Barkley mostly operated out of the front court.

Even with his advantages physically, Barkley was never known for his defensive prowess. One of the reasons for it was Charles being undersized in a league dominated by big men. However, it’s also fair to say that he was equally uninterested in excelling as a defensive stopper.

Luckily for him, what he lacked defensively he more than made up for on offense, as one of the premier power forwards in league history even to this day.

Being named an All-Star and All-NBA member on 11 occasions, Barkley became a household name and earned his keep by putting the ball in the basket.

MJ’s defensive prowess

Understandably, despite both being franchise cornerstones, MJ couldn’t relate to Barkley’s shortcomings defensively, especially considering he remains one of the greatest individual defenders in NBA history.

The Chicago Bulls legend retired with nine All-Defensive first team selections. He also won the 1987 Defensive Player of The Year award and led the league in steals three times. Perhaps he would’ve secured even more defensive accolades if the NBA didn’t give awards on reputation.

Still, it was amusing for Jordan when Barkley switched out on him all those years ago, as he couldn’t help but laugh as Barkley did all he could but still couldn’t stop him from getting any shot he wanted en route to a 40+ point game.