The NBA has never seen more three-pointers than it does these days. Every night, offenses look to space the floor, hunt open shooters beyond the arc, and launch shots from deep at record-breaking pace. To many fans and viewers nowadays, it feels natural, but to NBA legend Charles Barkley, things have gone too far, and the culprits are easy to identify.

“My problem is not with the three-point shot,” Barkley clarified during an appearance on the Howard Eisen Show. “It’s who’s shooting the shots. Howard, we got bad players jacking up threes… If you one of these guys and you can’t shoot threes, why are you shooting threes?”

Barkley made it clear that he has no problem with good three-point shooters taking long-range jumpers. Instead, he argued that far too many players are chucking up shots, despite the numbers showing otherwise. He went so far as to suggest that coaches need to be more vocal and have greater authority to curb this habit.

For the Phoenix Suns legend, the problem is more of a mindset that fuels the playing style, something that shows clearly when Barkley explains how fast breaks often look in the present day.

“Guys are going on a fast break, instead of taking a layup, they’re flaring out to shoot a three,” Barkley told Eisen. “I’m like, ‘Yo, man, you had a layup. It’s all right to shoot a layup every now and then.’ But listen, guys are got like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson that they ruined the NBA because everybody think they Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.”

And that’s where the three-point heavy style originates from, and that’s the line that stands out the most from Barkley’s comments.

How Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson Changed the NBA

Whether Barkley likes it or not, the influence of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson is undeniable, and it’s not simply the shooting that makes them the blueprint; it’s the value of three points over two. The Splash Brothers completely remade the foundation of modern offenses, and their success has only made other teams do their best to replicate that mold.

Charles Barkley has been clear about his dislike for this kind of play in the past, and perhaps his own time as a player informs his opinions. Over the course of his career, Barkley developed a reputation as a dreadful shooter, averaging 26.6% on nearly two attempts per game, which was quite high in volume for the 80s and 90s.

Teams nowadays regularly attempt 35-40 threes per game, and many analysts view this as a natural evolution as analytics and efficiency become more important metrics that front offices and coaching staffs begin to put merit in.

Barkley remains unconvinced; to him, Curry and Thompson have inspired a generation of players to believe that they can shoot like the greatest long-range players the game has ever seen, something that has ruined the game.