Charles Barkley ranked his top 25 players in the NBA on Thursday night and, as one would expect with the Chuckster, there were some stunning surprises. The most notable of these surprises was how he ranked the Warriors backcourt of Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.
As they scrolled up to Barkley’s row of 6-10 selections, Kenny Smith was dumbfounded to see that Barkley had ranked Thompson sixth and Curry seventh. The exchange between a baffled Smith and Barkley was pretty funny.
“Wait. *laughs* Wait, Charles. You have Klay Thompson over Steph Curry?!” Smith quipped.
“He’s a better all-around player,” Charles replied.
“Alright, if we’re starting a franchise who are you taking?”
“Well..”
“Well nothing, which one you going to take?!”
Here’s the full clip:
Barkley insisted that Thompson is the “best two-way guard in the entire NBA,” which caused Smith to throw his pen in disgust. Even Shaq couldn’t believe what he was seeing and they were all confused at how Chuck would rank Thompson over Curry because they all thought the basic criteria was “who would you take first on your team.” Charles did not really answer that question when pressed, insisting this was just his opinion on who the best player was, but wouldn’t say he’d take Klay over Steph.
We’ve heard Barkley’s love for Thompson’s game before and we know he doesn’t like shooters, so I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised, but it’s still a really weird choice of a hill to die on, insisting Thompson is better than Curry.
