For a man who once picked Allen Iverson No. 1 overall in an all-time draft, Charles Barkley may have somehow topped himself yet again.
The retired Basketball Hall of Famer Barkley went viral this week for his take on the greatest point guards of all-time. Barkley said that he believes Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry is now one of the two greatest ever at the position along with Isiah Thomas.
“I said after [Curry] won this [NBA title], that puts him on the list with Isiah Thomas,” Barkley said, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “He’s at the table in the Hall of Fame with Isiah Thomas as probably the best point guards. Those two are probably the two best points to ever play the game.”
But in naming Curry and Thomas as the two best point guards ever, Barkley had a big snub (and one of his contemporaries, no less) — Magic Johnson.
When pressed about leaving Johnson off his list, Barkley responded, “Magic Johnson is a little unique because he’s a 6-foot-10 point guard. He played it differently. But I put Steph right up there with Isiah Thomas as the best little guards to ever play the game.”
Indeed, Johnson, a five-time champion and three-time MVP who completely revolutionized the transition game, is the point guard whom most see as the greatest ever. Curry, who is now up to four rings, has a good argument of his own as a player who reframed the way that we think about the game with his unparalleled combination of volume and efficiency from three. But while Thomas was an excellent two-way point guard who won two rings of his own, few to none rank him above Johnson in the all-time conversation.
It appears Barkley was making a point here about the greatest point guards ever who were of traditional point guard size (though he only did so when pressed by the interviewer about excluding Johnson). But Barkley did recently show some love to Johnson in a different “GOAT” context.
