Stephen Curry leading the Warriors to another NBA title would spark a new round of goat discussions

San Francisco – Golden State Warriors Approaching the fourth NBA championship. Which means Stephen Curry is getting close to something even more impressive: the legacy of LeBron James, and the surprising booty that comes with such a chase.

Because even if he doesn’t catch LeBron – and he might be – Carrey is well positioned this month to pass names like Kobe, Durant, Bird, Magic and Wilt on the all-time stellar list.

During the eight years of the Warriors’ dominance, Curry was his team’s talisman and catalyst. Under his sudden but unrelenting superiority, a rising tide of success and celebration appeared because of him.

Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have emerged as capable Hall of Fame players. Steve Kerr has gone from a failed general manager and TV pundit to one of the 15 best coaches in sports history. Andrew Wiggins reneged on his promise. Jordan Paul of the G League went optimistic about the third brother. and so on.

Carrie pushed it all into existence. His greatness brought rings, legacies, fortune, a new stadium and even another all-time great, Kevin Durant, to an organization that before Curry’s arrival and rise were among the worst in the history of American sports.

Heck, these days, there are more TV minutes than game minutes.

now only Celtics He stands his way in capturing as many episodes as LeBron, a fact that demands sudden A wake-up call about how we thought we understood this era of basketball and those before it.

We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on LeBron vs.

Already, the mass media and fan awakenings of Steph’s growing legacy have prompted conversations about whether he can overtake LeBron’s place on the all-time greats list, and for understandable reasons.

This is, after all, a measure of how greatness is measured today. The fact that Steve beat LeBron in three series doesn’t hurt either.

And while LeBron toils with A Lakers organisation It helped enter the probably irrelevanceSteph could enter next season as the bookmaker’s favorite to win it all again. It’s not unreasonable that we’re on our way to a fact seeing Steve retire someday with more heroics than LeBron.

So Steph-can-be-better-than-LeBron’s conversation isn’t crazy. Steph is the greatest shooter in sports history – he’s awesome, in fact, he changed the NBA and changed the course of its history as much as Wilt, Bird-Magic, or Jordan. The game’s focus on 3-point shooting and centerless gameplay is rooted first and foremost in Cary.

He selects an era and changes it.

All-time greatness is an interesting mix of competing interests: individual accomplishments, sure, but also team success. We wish you good luck. and the narratives that define how we perceive – and remember – those rare stars.

Steph has a claim in all of these categories.

His individual resume is amazing: two of the best players (one unanimous). Most three-point shots ever. Functional shooting percentages are 47.3 from the field, 42.8 from 3 and 90.8 from the bar. One of only 11 players to have a 50-40-90 season. and so on.

The success of the team that Curry produced is also indisputable. There are the three episodes and counting, yes, but also a series of six NBA Finals in eight seasons. Kobe Bryant never did that. Nor Tim Duncan. LeBron reached eighth in a row, but was unable to do so with the same team. Only Steve, in this century, was able to survive and thrive at this level.

He’s also, as noted, turned other players into Hall of Fame nominees. Jordan did, probably, but it’s hard to say the same for LeBron. This is also important, even if it is difficult to measure or prove.

As the best shooter ever, and the guy who didn’t bounce from one team to the next, his narrative game got to the point. This is the man Durant had to join, not the other way around. However, Curry, the MVP winner at the time, welcomed Durant into the team by subduing his brilliance — and the shots, accolades and credit that came with it. Everyone says team and win comes first. Carey practiced it by playing down his doing.

No great man had ever done so in his prime. This, too, is easy to look back on but worth bearing in mind in any discussion of goats.

That’s a big part of why Curry is the superior player, historically speaking, to Durant. Durant needed Curry to win titles. Carey is about to prove that, sure, he didn’t need Durant. This is – plus the statistical reality of Steve’s import on Durant when he was on Earth in the Golden State, like Often excellently Written by Tom Haberstrow, NBA Writer – Raise Curry on Durant.

There would be no Golden State Warriors as we know them without Steve. And without Steve, Durant might have as many episodes as James Harden or Russell Westbrook.

The Steve v Durant controversy is a warm-up to the Steve v LeBron controversy. Steve, by NBA standards, is not an imposing athlete. He’s not a nature geek physically – not like MJ, LeBron, Kareem, Wilt, Shaq, Magic, or almost any of the other greats who look more like Avengers heroes than athletes.

That’s part of how, so far, many have lost the greatness of Steve. They also often overlooked the way his individual genius worked seamlessly with his teammates, raising them, making them better, and putting them in positions to find the best versions of themselves in basketball.

The literal space alone that Curry creates for his teammates — the gravitational force he exerts on defenses, and everything he does next for everyone lucky enough to play with — is hard to measure but impossible to miss. It changes the rules of the game, literally, the moment he touches or passes the ball in the middle of the field.

However, LeBron is, well, LeBron. He would almost certainly end his career as the top scorer in the game’s history. LeBron is already seventh on the all-time assists list. He’s been stalking Jordan for a reason. It’s amazing, and this run by Steve doesn’t change any of that, even if it bridges the gap.

As we always do, then, talking about Steve Curry celebrates and misses the biggest current point. Curry comes on LeBron’s legacy that, while real and interesting, will still likely end up with LeBron on top when they both retire.

But that’s not the actual point, at least not today.

This is it: The fact that we’re having this conversation means that if Steve leads Golden State to a fourth title starting Thursday, it will narrow the gap between him and LeBron so much that he’ll have other all-time greats. transcend it.

Names like Kobe. Duncan. Durant. bird. Charm.

Another title, Steph and the Warriors shows that all of this above was about Steph Curry. Durant and the nicknames he supported are not piggy on deck, despite his obvious contributions. No Keri Irving to leave Cleveland. He is just a great all time game that shapes the history of the game and the fate of his team, using his rare amazing talents.

Another headline, and the great discussion all along looks something like this:

1. Jordan

2. lebron

3. generous

4. Shack

5. Steve

Can Steve get past LeBron in the end? Maybe, but it’s not likely.

But beat the Celtics, and he’d have fired more of himself than any one of his patented deep shots.