Those comments caused a split between the pair that has never been fixed.
It still hurts Barkley today.
"I love Michael," Barkley told ESPN's The Dan Le Batard Show.
"I miss Michael's friendship. He was a great friend to me for a long period of time and I love him and I miss him like a brother."
The former Philadelphia, Phoenix and Houston power forward said bumping into Jordan at a function last month has not re-opened their lines of communication.
It was just an awkward meeting between two people who used to be friends.
"We just happen to be at the same place," he said.
"I would love to mend that relationship, but we just happened to be at the same place and we took a picture together. It was a public forum. I wish Michael nothing but the best. I love him like a brother, but we are not back to where we used to be."
He revealed just how upset Jordan was to hear Barkley's brutal honesty in regards to the Bobcats' struggles.
"I think that some people - when you're their friend - expect you to have their back no matter what and part of my job sucks sometimes when I have to criticise people I like or a friend," he said.
"What I said about Michael, that he had to do a better job of putting people around him because I thought he had too many people around him that just did what he said to do, he took it really personally and he got really angry.
"That (taking a photo together last month) was actually the first time I'd spoken to him in years. It was a public forum. We said hello and we took a picture together.
"I would love to be friends with Michael again. I miss his friendship. He was always like a brother to me and I miss that, but I feel like I have to do my job and I told people, 'I really miss the guy because he was like a brother to me for 30 years'. But he got upset at me and we haven't spoken. That was the first time I'd spoken to him in years."
