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It's a peculiar thing, golf, or at least, NBA players' obsession with playing the sport as a pastime. Yet, hundreds of sports stars across the world have taken to the links in order to wind down from the stresses of everyday life. Michael Jordan is no different, well, maybe a little different, because instead of frequenting his local golf course, he decided to have one built.
Unfortunately, many of Michael Jordan's former peers are never going to experience playing on his "Grove 23" course. Relationships have become strained and/or fractured in the decades since the era of players hanging their sneakers up.
Since retiring from the game, multiple legends have taken shots at Jordan for multiple reasons. You have the Isiah Thomas rivalry over Mike reportedly refusing to play with him on the Dream Team and the Scottie Pippen issues due to revelations made about the way Jordan treated his teammates.
"I was nothing more than a prop. His ‘best teammate of all time’, he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried," Pippen said when speaking to GQ Magazine about The Last Dance documentary.
Then there's the public fallout between Jordan and Charles Barkley, which came about due to the latter criticizing the job the Chicago Bulls legend has done in running the Charlotte Hornets.
Charles Barkley may never get to play on Michael Jordan's gold course, says Shannon Sharpe
In a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe's "The Shay Shay" show, the analyst spoke to NBA legend Charles Oakley about the likes of Barkely getting the opportunity to frequent Jordan's golf course in the future.
"Isiah mad because he took Chicago, said he wouldn't play on the Dream Team with him. Scottie just want to put himself in the position that it's almost tough for you to sit across from the guy that went to war with you now you know, said something about him in the book."
"Barkley, ain't no more golf I told him this time out. You gonna have to work on TNT for the next 20 years because ain't no golf time for you, I feel sorry for you, I know you really like to play golf and your game getting better but you got to play with some other guys."
"He (Jordan) got one of the best golf courses 'grove 23' in the world and he built his own golf course so Barkley probably get on a plane and ride over because he'll never play on it. He can see it from the sky but he can't see it from the ground."
It would seem that rivalries formed on and off the court still run deep to this day, and that "His Airness" continues to polarize the NBA alumni with his competitive nature and larger-than-life attitude. But after all these years, you would hope that he is able to begin mending fences with the likes of Pippen and Barkley, as those are his former friends, many of whom speak glowingly of him for the majority of the time.
And who knows, maybe we'll get a dream team reunion at Grove 23 in the coming years - even if it's just for a charity event.
Guess the Lakers players!
