The NBA world has constantly doubted Stephen Curry.
to not being able to score without help, to not winning any more championships.
On August 8th, 2024, Team USA’s basketball olympic run was looking over.
It would be the second year in a row that the US wasn’t the best and this year would hurt even more, after we assembled our best roster. Noah Lyles would be right. (*funny edit of world champion of what)*
Throughout the entire Olympics, Steph Curry was in a slump. Team USA was winning, but had not impressed in the olympics, even nearly losing exhibition games.
And on Thursday, Team USA was constantly and I mean constantly behind. But there was one man among the stars and no it was not LeBron, not Kevin Durant, it was a 6’ 3” undersized, not generational, one dimensional guard that saved an entire country and once again proved everyone wrong, ****but it was even more impressive than that, and it wasn’t the only time.
The same idea that somehow Steph could not carry a team despite leading his team to a championship in 2015 and finals in 2016 without Kevin Durant.
And on the road in a game 6, Curry starts off the game with 0 points in the first half and what happened next only added to the underdog story. Everyone was roasting Steph during half, calling him a choker, unable to lead a team as the main option, and he took the time during the halftime break to look at twitter, take in all the comments, and let it fuel him. He came out in the second half just putting on a clinic.
3, layup, off the dribble. Curry would score 32 points in the second half including multiple clutch 3s to close out the Rockets on the road, again without Kevin Durant.
He also led the league in scoring but at the end of the year, he also made a statement.
And this wasn’t the first time Curry had to make a statement based on what was being said. After Curry and the Warriors won their first championship, everyone was saying the Warriors were lucky to win and that they weren’t that dominant of a team and this is what Curry said.
The lack of a finals MVP was changing his legacy. And in the 2022 playoffs, Curry saved his best for last. Against the Celtics that were able to sweep the Nets and shut down Kevin Durant, in a series where the Warriors were down 2-1. No front running, no Kevin Durant, on the road, in Game 4, Curry goes off, scoring 43 points in every way possible including the deep 3s and the clutch shots.
The Warriors would win the finals 4-2, Curry would finally get his finals MVP. Finally, the commentators saying he’s only a front runner would shut up right? (*curry what are they gonna say now)
But even this still hasn’t been enough, because they came up with something new.
This is what he said in the summer after Steph won.
You do know that Steph actually finishes amongs the best in the NBA, in 2016, he was 2nd in the entire league, even including centers, at finishing in the rim.
In 2023, he was the second best finisher in the league among guards…
While this was the day that Steph saved Team USA, he proved it again in the gold medal game, answering another claim that recently was made by a former all-star point guard Gilbert Arenas.
Yup, he called Steph not generational. And he said this during the playoffs that the Warriors didn’t make this year so Curry didn’t have a chance to retaliate.
Now that word unfair is typically reserved for freaks of nature, generational athletes doing something athletically gifted that no one else can do and that’s what Curry was doing.
And just like all the other times people have doubted Curry, he has responded with his play.