When the GOAT debate is put to a Hall of Fame point guard who played across multiple eras, competed against legends, and coached the next generation, the answer carries weight that most take simply do not. Jason Kidd is that figure, and on the latest episode of The Dan Patrick Show, he said something that will rattle the established order of basketball’s all-time rankings. He put two active players ahead of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, including Stephen Curry.

“Steph is gonna be in the top five,” Kidd said on the show. “When you talk about when he decides to retire, Steph and Joker have the opportunity to be in the top five all-time.” Dan Patrick pushed him further, walking through the order one name at a time. Michael Jordan at one, LeBron James at two, Kobe Bryant at three, Kidd confirmed each without hesitation. Then came the question that defines the whole conversation. “And then if you had to end it today, it would be Joker and Steph,” Kidd said.

The implication was immediate: if Nikola Jokic and Curry occupy spots four and five, then Magic and Larry Bird are outside the top five, and Kidd confirmed exactly that. “Yeah. Well, yeah. They’ll be in the top, they could be in the top 15. It’s okay. It’s all right. They’re still good. They’re still really good. Don’t get me wrong,” Kidd said.

The context behind Kidd’s ranking is not just admiration; it is arithmetic. Steph Curry has scored 26,528 career points, passing Kevin Garnett, John Havlicek, and Paul Pierce on the all-time scoring list this past regular season alone. He averaged 26.6 points per game this season despite being limited to just 43 games due to a knee injury that cost him 27 consecutive games.

And that is to say nothing of what he has done to the sport structurally, four championships, two MVP awards, a Finals MVP, and a complete rewriting of how NBA offenses are built. Kidd’s framing is not that Curry has already earned his top-five spot. It is that, by the time he is done, the resume will be undeniable.

Kidd was careful to acknowledge the discomfort of what his list requires. When Patrick noted the logical consequence that putting Jokic and Curry in the top five means bumping generational icons, Kidd did not retreat. He did, however, offer Magic and Bird a soft landing, suggesting they should share a single slot given what they meant to the game.

“I think that they should take up one slot. When you talk about Magic and Larry because of what they did for the game for us, I think they should be tied together,” Kidd said, agreeing with Patrick’s framing. Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal, he confirmed, remain in the top ten. Kevin Durant, he said, is also top ten when it is all said and done.

Curry’s Numbers Already Make the Case, Even in a Shortened Season

The career-versus-current tension in Kidd’s ranking is worth unpacking, because the version of Curry that exists right now, despite injuries and a difficult Warriors season, remains historically remarkable.

Earlier this season, before a knee injury forced him out, Curry had already passed Hall of Famers Garnett, Havlicek, and Pierce on the all-time scoring list, three names in a single campaign.

He became the first NBA player in history to earn $60 million in a single season after signing a one-year, $62.6 million extension, and joined LeBron James and Kevin Durant as the only players ever to accumulate $500 million in career earnings. The financial markers are a proxy for something broader: the league’s collective valuation of what he represents.

What Kidd is doing is something relatively rare in GOAT conversations: he is ranking forward, not backward. His top five is not a tribute to eras past. It is a projection of where the game is heading and who has reshaped it most fundamentally.

Curry enters next season in the final year of his contract, with talks on an extension yet to begin, but both he and the Warriors have signaled a desire to continue together.

If he remains healthy, the scoring milestones ahead of him, Oscar Robertson, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Dominique Wilkins, are all within range and will only add to the case Kidd is already making.

For Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, both still celebrated as transformative figures, the uncomfortable truth Kidd laid out on the Dan Patrick Show is this: the sport has kept moving, and two players still active are threatening to pass them permanently.