In case you missed it, ESPN’s Tracy McGrady made a statement on Tuesday that Stephen Curry being voted the NBA‘s first-ever unanimous MVP was a sign of how watered-down the league is and not necessarily how great Curry was this season. While I completely disagree with McGrady’s claims, the former NBA star now has another talking head backing him up.

Charles Barkley made an appearance on ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ on Wednesday and Patrick asked him for his thoughts on McGrady’s comments.

“Well, the NBA is watered down,” Barkley told Patrick. “The NBA is the worst I’ve ever seen it. I think we’ve got to address with the kids coming to the NBA after one year. The NBA is definitely watered down. I’ve been saying that for the last two or three years. The NBA is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

“And I think it has to do with all these kids we’re drafting out of high school, we started with drafting kids out of high school. And now we’re drafting kids after one year of college and it drives me crazy. Because they have potential but they have no idea how to play basketball. So yeah, I think Tracy has a great point, something I’ve been saying for the last few years. The NBA is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

Barkley does have a point about kids being drafted into the NBA who aren’t ready. I do believe that the league should adopt a rule like the NFL where a player must be three years removed from high school before they can enter the draft, because that would give them more time to learn and grow without having to deal with the pressures of the NBA.

That being said, I still don’t like that these guys are using the watered-down NBA excuse to undermine what Curry accomplished. He put together one of the most ridiculous seasons we’ve ever seen, and he was clearly the best player in the league all season long. Whether the play is watered-down or not, he still outperformed every other player in the NBA and deserved to be the unanimous MVP based on his play.