Steph Curry further cemented his standing as one of the two best point guards ever while leading the Golden State Warriors to a fourth championship in eight seasons and winning his first Finals MVP award.
Hall-of-Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley agrees with that sentiment, but not its particulars. While the vast majority of league followers believe Curry and Magic Johnson are alone atop the all-time point guard hierarchy, Barkley is of the opinion Golden State's franchise player sits beside a different floor general who rose to prominence in the 1980s.
“I said after he won this one, that puts him on the list with Isiah Thomas,” Barkley told 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 guys are probably the two best points to ever play the game.”
Thomas won back-to-back titles with the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990, first sweeping Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals then taking down the Portland Trail Blazers 4-1 a year later. The 12-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA honoree was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2006 and recognized as one of the 75 greatest players ever at 2022 All-Star weekend.
Lauded for his maniacal competitiveness and burning will to win, Thomas put together one of the most iconic performances in NBA history before winning his first championship, dropping 25 third-quarter points in a must-win Game 6 of the 1988 Finals on a badly sprained right ankle. But the Lakers beat the Pistons in an all-or-nothing Game 7, with Johnson and “Big Game” James Worthy leading them to a 108-105 victory.
Barkley, to be clear, isn't taking anything away from Magic here. He just puts the 6-foot-9 playmaker in a different positional category than Curry and Thomas, who he thinks are “the best little guards” of all time.
“Magic Johnson is a little unique because he’s a 6-foot-10 point guard,” Barkley said. “He played it differently. But I put Steph right up there with Isiah Thomas as the best little guards to ever play the game.”
Could Steph Curry surpass Thomas in Barkley's personal pecking order? Let's check back with Chuck again this time next year, after Curry and the Warriors mount their title defense.
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