RealGM

Who had the greater career, Moses Malone or Charles Barkley?

I have generally rated Moses higher. His defense was considerably better and he both did more with more talent (title with Sixers) and did more with less (finals with Rockets). He also was a pro's pro who busted his butt every night whereas Barkley was a party boy for much of his career.

Barkley's edge is his superior shooting and much superior playmaking. He also showed that with the Dream Team he could be dominant (over weak competition) even with great teammates.

Greater career is pretty easily Moses. Better longevity and career stats, accomplished more in his prime with three MVPs and a championship, and he spawned Charles Barkley.

Charles has an argument for peak, but even that is close.

Moses has a top 15 Resume and has a good argument for top 20. Cannot say the same for Barkley

The thing I feel like I am lacking with Moses is how good he actually was in his latter Sixers/Bullets/Hawks years. Because one hole in Moses' resume is his overall playoff performances past 83. Was he still decent to good defensively from 85-90 for instance? He makes his last all nba team at age 31. Chuck's prime basically ends at age 32 but he has some great playoff series in those 28-32 years which Moses lacks. I also sort of question Moses' leadership.

I prefer Moses at his best but I think I rate Barkley's 6th-10th seasons as better than Moses. So it's close but I think I would still give Moses more credit.

Dr Positivity wrote:I prefer Moses at his best but I think I rate Barkley's 6th-10th seasons as better than Moses. So it's close but I think I would still give Moses more credit.

I assume you have these seasons for top 5:

Barkley: 1988-93 (minus 1992)
Moses: 1979-83

That leaves us with something like this for Barkley:

1992
1995
1994
1987
1996

and for Moses:

1985
1987
1984
1986
1989

Which one is better? I don't know, to me it looks quite close. Interesting point though, feel free to comment.

Barkley maybe has a slightly higher peak, IMO but I'd put Moses ahead of him all-time. Better defender and rebounder. Won three MVPs in the middle of the Kareem/Dr. J era.

I have Moses a few spots higher, but honestly I find Moses hard to rank, Barkley too for that matter but to a lesser extent.