With the Golden State Warriors‘ six-game victory over the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, Stephen Curry has now won his fourth NBA championship.
Some around the basketball world have doubted his greatness for years, other than his magical shooting stroke, but now that he and his team have overcome tons of adversity to get back to the mountaintop, many feel he is rapidly climbing the list of all-time basketball players.
Plenty now feel he may be one of the 10 greatest players ever to play the game.
The Top 10 NBA players of all-time, according to @Chris_Broussard:
1. Michael Jordan
2. LeBron James
3. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
4. Magic Johnson
5. Tim Duncan
6. Kobe Bryant
7. Larry Bird
8. Stephen Curry
9. Shaquille O'Neal
10. Bill Russell pic.twitter.com/tFxpz5TFpI— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) June 17, 2022
In this era, the only real competitor to Curry in terms of legacy and accomplishments is LeBron James, but Curry has now tied him in championships.
Has Curry leveled the field with James, or is he still looking up at him?
Curry Is Assembling A Pretty Impressive Resume
At age 34, the accomplishments are starting to pile up for Curry.
In addition to winning his fourth ring, he also won the Finals MVP award for the first time, which was the one individual honor he had really lacked.
The guard has two regular season MVPs, and for one of them, he was the first unanimous MVP in NBA history.
He also has two scoring titles and four All-NBA First Team selections, and he has led the league in free-throw shooting percentage four times.
Curry is known as the greatest outside shooter ever, but the other aspects of his game are underrated.
Stephen A. on Steph Curry:
“I believe Steph will eclipse LeBron James and capture 5 championships in his career, while LeBron is still stuck on 4.” pic.twitter.com/XQsoMnitQS
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) June 1, 2022
He is a strong finisher at or near the rim – he has a career average of 64.5 percent from three feet and in – and his career average of 6.5 assists a game illustrates his ability to facilitate and hit the open man.
He is also a pretty good rebounder for someone who is just 6-foot-2 and weighs 185 pounds – he grabbed 10 rebounds in his monster Game 4 performance in the Finals.
Head-to-head versus James, Curry has won three championships while losing just one, which is outstanding.
Where Steph Falls Short
However, James fans will readily point out that in the 2015 Finals, Kyrie Irving was injured and that in 2018, the Warriors had the Cleveland Cavaliers overmatched by a wide margin, as Irving was no longer on the team.
At age 37, James may never win another championship, but he is likely not done adding individual accomplishments to his resume.
He already has four regular season MVPs, four Finals MVPs, a scoring title, an assists title (while playing full-time point guard to boot) and 13 All-NBA First team selections.
James also has been named to the All-Defensive squad six times, something Curry hasn’t done even once.
Then there is the issue of stats- James has career averages of 27.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game, compared to 24.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 6.5 assists per contest for Curry.
The main drawback to James’ legacy is the fact that he’s a poor 4-6 in the Finals, while Curry is 4-2.
But James’ clearly superior individual game, stats, and accomplishments simply dwarf those of Curry.
Sorry Warriors fans, but although Curry is nearing the top 10 players of all time, he simply isn’t on James’ level – at least not yet.
NEXT: The Finals Proved That Jayson Tatum Isn't A True Superstar Yet
JindyK says
Haha true. Curry will also never reach the extremely entitled utter cheapness of LeBron either. Ever.
Sorry LA fans, you got a nearly washed out cheapskates on your team now.