Ever since winning his fourth NBA championship in June, Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry has been getting his flowers.
He is now getting full recognition for his skills, talents and accomplishments, and many people are re-evaluating his place in the history of the game and the list of the greatest player ever.
There is a growing chorus that Curry is or at least may be one of the 10 greatest players in the history of basketball.
Shaquille O’Neal, who himself is widely considered one of the 10 greatest players ever, took things a step further when it came to Curry.
During an interview with Dime magazine, he said that the reigning Finals MVP is in a class by himself.
“Because there’s no one like him,” O’Neal responded when asked what makes Curry so unique. “People remember Shaq, there was no one like him. He’s one of those players — Mike (Michael Jordan), Kobe [Bryant], LeBron [James], nobody like them. He has his own category: Best shooter ever. … But in his category, he’s by himself. Greatest player ever, 10 people in that category.”
Curry may not have quite the same stature as Jordan, Bryant or James, but he has certainly earned his own singular stature as one of the true greats.
Curry’s Reputation Has Soured In Recent Months
For years, Curry had a strong reputation, but something was missing.
In the 2014-15 season, he won the regular season MVP and his first world title, but Andre Iguodala, who only started the Warriors’ last three playoff games, won the Finals MVP.
The next season, he won another MVP while leading the NBA in scoring and helping the Warriors win a record 73 games, but they ended up blowing a 3-1 series lead in the Finals to LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers.
There were whispers that although Curry was a great player and the greatest outside shooter ever, he was lacking something he needed to be considered an all-time great or even simply a franchise player.
That type of talk intensified over the next couple of years when the Warriors won the next two championships with new addition Kevin Durant.
Oddly enough, the situation hurt both superstars: Durant because he wasn’t the “bus driver” and Curry because he didn’t win those titles “by himself.”
But the 2022 championship seemed to change all that.
Curry Is Now A King
Once Durant left the Warriors in 2019, it was clear that if they were ever to return to the mountaintop, they would have to do so the hard way, especially when Klay Thompson tore his ACL during the 2019 NBA Finals.
Things got even harder when Curry suffered a serious hand injury early the next season that caused him to sit out the balance of the schedule and Thompson tore his Achilles prior to the following season.
Many thought the Warriors’ dynasty was over.
Even after they started this past season 18-2, they fell into a long funk afterward, even after Thompson finally returned, and many doubted their chances of winning it all.
But Golden State went through the early rounds of the playoffs with few hiccups, and they proceeded to down the Boston Celtics for their fourth world championship in the last eight years.
After a magnificent series, Curry got tons of praise, and it almost felt like some were atoning for not giving him his due in past years.
From here on out, his legacy can only grow.
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