When you talk about great ball handlers in the NBA, Derrick Rose is usually in the team picture. Well, the Bulls point guard with the lightning-quick crossover couldn’t break into Isaiah Thomas’ Top 5.
In a piece for the The Players’ Tribune, the Boston point guard picked his favorite ankle-breakers.
Thomas writes:
Basketball is all about instincts and anticipation, especially when it comes to point guards who have to put the ball on the floor and create for themselves and their teammates. … There are no sleepers here. You know all these guys. But I’m going to tell you why you know them and what makes them the NBA’s elite ball-handlers.
Jamal Crawford, Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving and James Harden are on Thomas’ list of elite ball handlers.
Of Crawford, he writes:
Jamal is a straight streetballer. He doesn’t have a signature or go-to move. He’s always doing something different depending on the situation, and he’s always trying crazy new stuff. He’s just so gifted that I don’t think he even knows what he’s going to do sometimes. He just does it, and everyone says Wow… He has a combination of instinct and a crazy natural ability to control the ball.
The sixth man on Thomas’ team? Himself.
Thomas might want to give the video below another look.
