Charles Barkley is one of the NBA legends. However, there is one sport where he hasn't had any success despite his love for it. Barkley has a not-so-impressive golf swing, so much so that even Tiger Woods has joked about his swing often.
A few years back, Tiger Woods surprised Barkley with a goodie bag prior to their 2020 exhibition The Match. This was more of a prank reminding him that he needed a lot of improvement in his skills.
The goodie bag consisted of a road traffic cone, a safety jacket, and a whistle. Woods had a reason for each of the gifts.
"That's [traffic cone] kind of for the construction going on around your swing, just the safe zone so Phil [Mickelson], Steph [Curry] and I can stay away. [About the jacket] It's deer season, so if you get way out in the desert they'll know you're there. So that's more of a safety measure. Just blow it [whistle]. He'll find ya wherever you are."
Peyton Manning, Steph Curry, and Phil Mickelson had a good laugh about it.
However, to everyone's surprise, Charles Barkley and Phil Mickelson beat the Manning-Curry duo in a Capital One exhibition, The Match.
When Michael Jordan made fun of Barkley's swing
It wasn't just Woods and another basketball legend, Michael Jordan, who had also called out Barkley's swing on the Oprah Winfrey show.
Jordan was asked by Oprah if they played together anymore. Jordan gave a few hilarious takes on Barkley's swing. He said that Barkley used to be good once and then he visited a certain instructor.
"He used to be really good. People don't realize when they see him on TV. He used to shoot 75 76 77 yeah and he went to this instructor and the instructor said, 'make it seem like you're stopping up top, oh you get to tempo', he hasn't started since he's been stopped."
Charles had his reasons though. As per him, he had a mental block.
"I have a mental block, I do, I just, I have no idea how it started and I can't help it I've tried everything," Barkley said.
"I can't even explain it cuz I don't know what's gonna happen cause like when I make my practice swing I can do it without stopping yeah but then when you put a ball down there I can't do it," he added.
Charles Barkley's career profile
Charles Barkley is a former NBA star who now does broadcasting for TNT. He played 16 seasons for the NBA, for the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, and Houston Rockets. He was also part of the Olympic gold-winning US team twice (1992,1996).
Since retiring in 2000, the former NBA star has been an analyst with TNT Sports. He along with Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, and Shaquille O'Neal regularly features on the show Inside the NBA as a pundit.
Barkley has been awarded the Sports Emmy Award for "Outstanding Studio Analyst" four times.
Barkley also appeared in the third edition of Capital One's exhibition, The Match: Champions for Change, where he paired up with Phil Mickelson. The Barkley-Mickelson duo beat Peyton Manning-Stephen Curry by 4–3.
Barkley was also recently seen during the broadcast of Capital One's The Match's latest edition.