Another day, another Charles Barkley slightly focused on Steph Curry and the Warriors.
Moments after Curry was named in his seventh NBA All-Star game Thursday, Barkley spoke out for the two guards who were to be selected as appetizers at the Western Conference on Warriors star and Dallas Mavericks phenomenon Luka Doncic.
‘There is no right or wrong answer, but I thought [Damian] Lillard and Donovan Mitchell, for me (should have been All-Star entrees), “said Barkley on TNT’s preseason before the Toronto Raptors took on the Milwaukee Bucks.” If you have the best record in basketball, that says a lot. They have these stupid arguments about who gets MVP every year. The MVP has never gone to the best player. It always went to who was the best player in the best team. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal should have won three or four, but the other guys played better that season.
“I think Donovan Mitchell should be rewarded. No respect for anyone. But this kid was the best player in the best team in the NBA, and it’s a shame he did not start.”
There is no difference with Barkley over the fact that Lillard and Mitchell are experiencing incredible seasons and that their respective teams, the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz, are currently playing better than the Warriors and Mavericks. Utah has the best overall record (24-5) in the NBA until Thursday. Portland has won six games in a row and sits in fourth place in the West with an 18-10 record.
The Warriors (16-13) are, for the first time this season, three games over .500 and the Mavericks underperformed, to the tune of a 13-15 record, good for 10th place in the West.
But the All-Star Game is not a reward for team success. It’s about who the fans want to see and the players who experience the best statistical seasons.
In addition, Curry is currently one of the most popular players in the NBA and his numbers are better than those of Lillard, Mitchell and Doncic. In fact, there are few, if any, players who score better numbers this year than Curry.
If we compare Curry, Doncic, Lillard and Mitchell this season, the two-time NBA MVP leads the four players in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, effective field goal percentage, free throw percentage, steal per game and points per game.
Among the four players, Curry Doncic runs in rebounds per game and is third behind Doncic and Lillard in assists per game.
Statistically speaking, Curry is experiencing the best season of the four Western Conference guards. He averaged 30.0 points on 49.2 percent from the field and 42.5 percent from three points.
But more than statistics, the biggest determining factor in the All-Star Game starter is the fan vote (50 percent of the formula), and Curry thrones all other Western guards and finishes with 5,481,033 votes. Doncic finished a distant second with 3,335,042 votes.
Curry also finished first in the votes among players and voted by media members, making up each component 25 percent of the final result.
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While Barkley Lillard and Mitchell may want to be rewarded for the team’s success, fans, players and the media do not all agree with him.
Curry was rightly selected as an All-Star Game starter for the seventh time in his career.
Sorry, Chuck, but you’re on the wrong side of this argument again.
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