“I'm the worst GM because of the picks” – Gilbert Arenas explains Michael Jordan picking Kwame Brown as No.1 draft pick

Michael Jordan is no longer the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets. With the Hall of Famer no longer at the helm of the Hornets, his catastrophic reign as one of the worst owners in league history comes to a close.

Although there are many, including Jordan's longtime friend Charles Barkley, who have criticized the all-time great for his moves, Gilbert Arenas doesn't see it that way.

According to Arenas, when you look at the drafts where Michael Jordan selected players who underperformed, there's a lot of room to justify those picks. During a recent interview with DJ Vlad, Arenas spoke about Jordan's time as an owner and the decisions he made in the NBA draft.

Putting himself in Jordan's shoes, Arenas said:

"I got Kwame Brown, right? Now, let's rewind it. Who was I going to pick now? Right? Am I going to pick Tyson Chandler? Yeah, he had 20 years, but he was never a star. Do I take that with the No. 1 pick? Probably not. Eddy Curry? Probably not. (Pau) Gasol – ding ding ding – but was Gasol even considered the No. 1 pick? No.

"Say, 'I don't have the best infrastructure on building the talent,' I can live with that, but don't say you know I'm the worst GM because of the picks"

With Jordan's tenure as a majority owner now over, many are wondering whether he and Charles Barkley will be able to reconnect.

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What did Charles Barkley say that caused the fallout with Michael Jordan?

While Michael Jordan was majority owner of the Hornets, Barkley, as part of the "Inside the NBA" crew on TNT, criticized Jordan's decision-making. Barkley said that he believed Jordan needed to surround himself with better people.

The way he saw things, Jordan had people around him who went along with his moves as an owner because they didn't want to disagree with him. In Barkley's mind, the fact that Jordan was buying dinner for his staff members and flying them on his private jet made it hard for people to disagree with him.

Charles Barkley

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The comments created a rift between the two which Barkley calls one of the most prominent things to happen to him. In an interview with "Let's Go! With Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray," he opened up on the rift between the two:

"I try to surround myself with people like, hey, if I’m screwing up, please tell me. And Michael got offended about something I said about him. And we haven’t spoken in probably almost 10 years. And he was my best friend at the time. And I love the dude like a brother, and we’re both stubborn and we haven’t talked.”

Since then, Barkley has expressed an interest in reconnecting with Jordan, however, there's been no word from the former Chicago Bulls star on the matter.

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