Players still don’t like Steph Curry.

Old heads still don’t like Curry. Even some current players don’t like Curry. Even after he proved he could carry a team.

I think it’s the idea that what Steph does seems to be attainable.

Trae Young was supposed to be the next Steph Curry and that hasn’t went according the plan. But he doesn’t have a team around him.

Heck Dame has the same capabilities right?

When Curry and Dame faced off, Dame got cooked (2021 Steph going for 62 points).

It’s why Steph at times seems more relatable to NBA fans than a LeBron who 6’ 8” 250 pounds with a 40+ inch vertical or Jordan who could palm the ball, float in the air.

Steph is just the small guy fighting the freaks of nature. He is the best player that 6’ 3” and under. That is until you realize that he’s a freak of nature too, just not in the traditional sense. Every time we compare Steph, especially in terms of dominance, it’s always against players that are 6’ 6” and above. Magic Johnson, LeBron James, even KD, guys who could power through, get the ball in the low block iso. In fact, when we think generational for athletes, we typically think of physical athleticism first.

But what Steph has done screams the same dominance done differently. *And it’s time we change the preconceived notion in the one big thing thing this week.*

What is up dudes, dudettes, ballers, players. It’s ya boi.

*Steph does things in a different way.*

But his peers haven’t necessarily shown him respect. Like during the 2016 playoffs, after Curry is the first unanimous MVP, Durant and Westbrook were asked about Curry as an underrated defender and…

Yeah they laughed at him even though Curry was defending better than the rest of his team on average and more importantly, why provoke the best player on the other team? Because you don’t respect him even after a record breaking season and Steph cooked em. But

And it’s not at a small sample size. If we take a look at the average number of 3s by year from 2010, you’ll see the massive explosion. Before Steph Curry got into the league, the highest number of 3s in a season was Ray Allen, 269. But since Steph’s 2014 explosion, now Ray Allen’s season is only 24th of all time. You’ll see Buddy Hield a few times, Donte DiVincenzo’s recent season. Dame. There’s only 2 times that a player has hit over 300 3s in a season, Klay and Harden. And oh yeah, Steph 5 times. He actually has 5 of the top 6 spots. That isn’t a single season of excellence, that is sustained regardless of if he was teammates with KD or not.

Greatness to me is how much better you are than your competition, your contemporaries. In 2016, Curry not only made the most 3s, he also shot 12% better than league average for real true shooting percentage. And as an added bonus, per ESPN, in 2016 Curry averaged more 4th quarter points per 48 minutes than any player of the 21st century (including LeBron and Kobe Bryant)

You’re telling me that someone is going to come around that is going to be that much better than the league at shooting?

*Anything is possible, but uhhh maybe not.*

We hear several claims that Steph Curry ruined basketball, that the next generation is cooked because now in your local gym, the average 9 year old is just chucking 3s believing they could do it. And technically they could make the attempt, shoot off the dribble, they just can’t make it. No has made it.

If the average mortal believes they could replicate Curry, then imagine NBA players who are infinitely more talented and skills would feel they could replicate Curry given enough practice and reps. However, a lot of these Curry shots are considered bad shots.

That went tragically.

But Curry was quite literally a great rookie, over 17 points a game. He used to take 6 mid ranges a game in 2012, a lot off the dribble. More than Kevin Durant! He was good at the traditional game as well. He was already on the path to greatness in a traditional sense. It’s just that 3s weren’t considered as important. That attribute wasn’t considered something to be generational, but the fact that he changed what the game values is generational.

We’re seeing several athletes right now who are closer in athleticism to Michael Jordan, but that doesn’t mean that Jordan’s athleticism wasn’t generational, because at that time, there was no athlete that could do what he did and being that much ahead of the best the world had to offer that it takes generations to catch up *is quite literally generational*

So when they faced off a few weeks later on January 3, 2021, Curry created his own shots and dropped 62 points.

Can’t create a shot huh. Led the league in scoring that year…huh.

The way Curry creates shots is perhaps also “replicable” right. He’s not isoing that much, he just runs off of screen, gets open, and makes the shot.

Apparently he’s one dimensional.

He doesn’t iso hesi pull up enough…