Charles Barkley Offers Major Curry & Klay Comparison for Spurs Young Duo

Charles Barkley spent the 2026 NBA Finals in June calling the San Antonio Spurs' late-game decisions "dumb basketball.''

Barkley returned to the Spurs on The Bill Simmons Podcast, this time on Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper.

"Those two guards — I don't want to see them for the next 10 years if I'm a guard in the NBA. If I'm a guard in the NBA, I do not want to see them, boys, for the next 10 years," Barkley said. "They're going to be the new Steph and Klay."

Castle and Harper answer to Slash Bros, a nickname the two settled on themselves and one the Spurs and NBA have both used.

Both were named 2026 Rising Stars in January.

San Antonio took Castle fourth overall out of UConn in 2024, and he won Rookie of the Year in 2025. Harper went second overall out of Rutgers in 2025.

Harper was 20 through the Finals. Castle turns 22 on Nov. 1.

The two put up numbers behind Barkley's comparison last spring.

Castle scored 32 points with 11 rebounds on 5-of-7 shooting from 3-point range in the Game 6 win over Minnesota that sent San Antonio to the Western Conference finals.

Earlier in the postseason, Harper came off the bench for 27 points and 10 rebounds. He became the youngest player in NBA history to score at least 25 points off the bench in a playoff game and the youngest guard in league history with a playoff double-double.

In that same game, Castle and Harper became the first duo aged 21 or younger to each score 25 points in a playoff game since Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in 2010.

San Antonio went on to beat Oklahoma City in seven games in the Western Conference finals.

The New York Knicks won the Finals four games to one, from June 3 through June 13.

Game 4 is the one Barkley was talking about in June.

San Antonio led by 29 in the third quarter and carried a 27-point lead into halftime. New York erased the largest deficit in Finals history, and OG Anunoby tipped in the winner with 1.2 seconds left for a 107-106 final.

The Knicks closed the series out 94-90 in San Antonio two nights later.

Barkley singled out De'Aaron Fox after Game 4. With San Antonio ahead by one and 13 seconds left, Fox stole the ball and drove for a layup rather than let the Knicks foul him. Anunoby blocked it.

Barkley later said his criticism was aimed at the players and not Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, and he apologized to Johnson on ESPN's pregame show.

Fox is 28 and was acquired from Sacramento at the 2025 trade deadline. He, Castle, and Harper split the guard minutes last season.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson won four championships together with Golden State. Thompson left for the Dallas Mavericks in 2024.

Barkley also said on the same podcast that he intends to leave Inside the NBA if Ernie Johnson does.