Charles Barkley opens up about end of friendship with Michael Jordan

Born just three days apart, basketball legends Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan were once the best of friends, but now they haven't spoken in years.

Barkley, who is famous for his opinionated takes, told 60 Minutes correspondent Jon Wertheim that Jordan broke off the friendship over comments Barkley made about the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan is the owner of the NBA team which, at the time, had been struggling to win games.

"And what I said, I think that he don't have enough people around him that are gonna tell him, 'No,'" Barkley said. "And he got really offended, and we haven't spoken."

For Barkley, who makes a living sharing his unvarnished opinions as an analyst on TNT's "Inside the NBA," there's no room for a double standard.

"I'm gonna do my job," he said. "Because I have zero credibility if I criticize other people in the same boat and not criticize my best friend."

Jordan's greatness doesn't give him "the right to be a jerk," Barkley continued.

If their relationship is ever to be mended, Barkley said the ball is in Jordan's court.

"He got my number," Barkley told Wertheim.

Jordan isn't the only one to find himself in Barkley's crosshairs. Sixty nights a year on "Inside the NBA," Barkley offers his take on everything and everyone from the Milwaukee Bucks to LeBron James, and no topic is out of bounds. After Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant was suspended for flashing a gun in an Instagram Live video, Barkley used the opportunity to address gun violence.

Barkley's proclivity for sharing exactly what is on his mind began when he was still a young NBA player. Drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984, it didn't take long for the kid from Alabama to become as famous for his quotability as for his furious rebounding.

His friends say it's a trait he inherited from his grandmother, who helped raise Barkley alongside his mother.

"He got a mouth like granny," one of his friends agreed during a visit to Barkley's hometown of Leeds, Alabama.