St. John’s coach Rick Pitino turned a lot of heads with his recent takes on point guards in the current era of basketball. Pitino, who played 63 games as a guard for Massachusetts and averaged 4.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, had a strong take on the lack of real point guards at every level of basketball.
In a team meeting, Pitino said former Wake Forest star Chris Paul was the last player to play like a true PG, mentioning that none of the top NBA teams have one of those.
“I said this to the team. Who’s the point guard of the Knicks, the Lakers, the Celtics, the world champion (Thunder)? Point guard is totally done in basketball,” Pitino said. “The days of John Stockton are long gone. There are no more point guards. Chris Paul is probably the last one. You’ve got to play with everybody handling the basketball, five out and just create good movement.”
This take drew a lot of attention and responses, including from one notable college basketball analyst.
College basketball analyst responds to Rick Pitino’s take on point guards
Seth Greenberg reacted to Rick Pitino’s comments on his X (formerly Twitter) account. He partially agreed with the coach’s take, but also noted that their role depends on the team and the system coaches put them in. Greenberg discussed how positionless basketball changed roles for everybody on he court.
Rick Pitino
“You want as many skilled players as possible and everyone talks about positionless basketball and that’s great,” Greenberg said. “Anyone could initiate your offense. But at the end of the game, you want to have the ball in your best player’s hands.”
The game has evolved so much since the John Stockton days, and seeing a player with his same set of skills, who can play like the Utah Jazz legend, would be incredibly rare.
