(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
August is the slowest time of the year for sports, so it’s a good time to cook up some good old-fashioned top-five lists.
ESPN analyst and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins recently cooked up a list of his own, and his top-five point guards of all time list is straight out of ESPN’s playbook of being just reasonable enough to seem legitimate at first glance while being just hot-takey enough to anger fans and get everyone into a heated argument.
Perkins revealed his top five point guards on a recent episode of NBA Today, putting John Stockton at No. 5, Russell Westbrook fourth, Oscar Robertson third, Magic Johnson second, and Stephen Curry first.
“Steph Curry is fantastic … Magic has more MVPs, Magic has more championships … [Magic was] jumping center against the Sixers as a rookie. I’ll give the edge to Magic.” @mcten tells @KendrickPerkins why Magic Johnson is ahead of Steph Curry as the greatest PG ever pic.twitter.com/WCRZAOvCHa
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) August 14, 2024
Steph over Magic is the most glaring part of this list, as even though Curry is a point guard on paper, his playstyle is not that of a traditional point guard and Magic is considered the consensus top point guard of all-time due to his five championships and his status as the best passer in NBA history.
Including Russell Westbrook on the list while omitting Chris Paul, Isiah Thomas, and Steve Nash is also controversial.
Westbrook’s game has not aged well and he hasn’t made it close to an NBA Finals since reaching the Finals in 2011 alongside Kevin Durant and James Harden with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Steph and Magic are likely the top two at the moment with all that Steph has accomplished, and he changed the sport about as much as anybody ever has, but it’s still tough to make a legitimate case for Steph over Magic unless he wins another title.
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