This time, the former Hall of Famer is taking aim at Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, whom he considers responsible for changing the face of the NBA. Too much, in his view. Barkley doesn’t have an issue with the three-point shot itself (he even referenced an interesting take from Paul Pierce).

According to the Inside The NBA on ESPN analyst, the league is filled with mediocre players imitating elite shooters without having the skill set to back it up. For Sir Charles, coaches should be given more authority to rein in players who don’t have the percentages to justify those attempts.

The issue isn’t just aesthetic – it’s technical. Barkley points to fast breaks ending in rushed three-pointers instead of simple finishes at the rim.

His charge, delivered with his trademark irony, is clear: Curry (whose recovery timeline has recently been extended) and Thompson raised the bar to an unreachable levelbut the rest of the league copied the volume – not the accuracy.

The numbers tell the story of a dramatic evolution. In 2000, teams attempted fewer than 15 threes per game. Today, that average sits at 37. And yet, the overall percentage has remained almost identical, hovering around 35%. The three-point shot hasn’t become significantly more accurate – it has simply become ubiquitous.

For Barkley, the analytics revolution has turned the game into a volume contestsacrificing post play, the mid-range and transition fundamentals. Critics call it natural evolution. He sees an excess of imitation.

Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between. Curry and Thompson redefined what a good shot looks like. But not everyone can be them. And in today’s NBA, according to Barkley, that’s the point that has been lost along the way.