Barkley talks Karl Malone

The two are good friends now but were fierce rivals on the court.  As Charles Barkley made the media rounds this week in celebration of his 50th birthday, he spoke about what he thought separated he and fellow power forward Karl Malone during their time in the league.

One of the things about my game, though, was that I could do all my stuff on my own. I think I'm in the top 20 of players of all time. You take Karl [Malone] -- he needed John Stockton. That's not a knock on Karl. I didn't need a point guard. I could get mine any time I wanted to.

I'll say it on the record: I was better than Karl. He was great. I was better. The only thing he could do better than me was score and that came down to John Stockton.

But Karl was my best friend on the Dream Team. He used to call me all the time and ask me to go hunting.

"What are we going after?" I'd ask.

"Mountain lion and bear," Karl would tell me.

"Damn, can't we hunt something that can't f---ing kill us?" Hell, no, I would never consider going.