We’ve already seen Magic Johnson vehemently disagree with ESPN’s rankings of the Top 10 point guards of all-time.
Specifically, he didn’t like where his good friend Isiah Thomas was ranked – fifth overall, just below Stephen Curry and John Stockton. Johnson cited Thomas scoring 25 points on a bum ankle in the Finals to explain the greatness of the point guard, but didn’t really provide any other reason for why he feels the way he does.
Enter former Detroit Pistons All-Star forward Grant Hill, who decided to chime in on the debate on Friday. Hill is a little late to the party (the list came out on Tuesday), but provided a couple more reasons for why he believes Thomas belongs in the Top 3 than Johnson did:
I love Steph Curry, but don’t be disrespectful.. @iamisiahthomas is definitely Top 3 All Time PG #DetroitBasketball pic.twitter.com/MAkcSAuuWK
— grant hill (@realgranthill33) January 16, 2016
@iamisiahthomas was the only player ever to average at least 21 PPG and 13 APG for an entire season.
— grant hill (@realgranthill33) January 16, 2016
Too early in Curry’s career to compare him to @iamisiahthomas . His bodywork is not complete to be in that rarefied air just yet
— grant hill (@realgranthill33) January 16, 2016
Again, it’s all debatable and there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer here. Hill certainly makes his case for Thomas and is, in all likelihood, looking at the entirety of a player’s career to determine where he belongs in the ranks. Plenty will agree with what he’s saying, and I’m not necessarily disagreeing either. The issue is that no one listed longevity as a required criteria to rank the players. In that sense, Curry’s revolutionary ability to single-handedly destroy a team’s defensive scheme is unmatched, and it’s not crazy to say that there has never been another point guard like him in the history of the league. Curry is also on the verge of a second MVP season while averaging nearly 30 points on better than 50 percent shooting from the field, if we’re talking about a list of crazy things no point guard has ever done.
Curry’s stardom took off later than Thomas’ partly due to lingering ankle issues he couldn’t shed until his fourth year in the league (Steve Nash also hit another gear in his career after he hit 30), but it’s undeniable that Curry has changed the game with his ability to shoot the ball from anywhere on the court. When you have that kind of influence on the game, it’s truly difficult to determine just where exactly you belong when it comes to rankings. It can be a touchy subject for those who are very close to the game and in this case, the player himself. Personally, this is an interesting debate that you can’t really lose.
Jim Park is a blogger and Tweet of the Night author of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.