At his prime, Tiger Woods faced two serious hurdles. His father, Earl Woods, died in 2006. Then in November 2009, Woods faced the public backlash from an affair while he was married to Elin Nordegren. He crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant outside of his home and the high-profile scandal shattered his then-sterling public image. The death of his father, the cheating scandal, and Woods’ ambition to remain the best in golf all contributed to a demise that spanned several years.
In light of everything that happened, Woods retreated into his own privacy and let his friendships fall by the wayside. “To this day, I don’t have any idea what happened, friend Charles Barkley said of Woods at the time, according to the Daily Mail. “After that … he just stopped talking to us. That’s all I know.” Woods’ reputation had taken a beating, and it seemed as if, in order to spare his friends the trouble, he removed himself from their circles.
Read Related Also: Disney CEO Bob Iger ousts Marvel chairman Isaac Perlmutter in job cuts
Jordan never really left, though. While their friendship might have changed over the years, the two men stayed friends, with Jordan bearing witness to Woods’ struggles. In 2016, Jordan told ESPN that Woods couldn’t let go of his golf career. “I think he’s tired,” Jordan said of Woods. “I think he really wishes he could retire, but he doesn’t know how to do it yet.” Jordan added, “The thing is, I love him so much that I can’t tell him, ‘You’re not gonna be great again.'”
