Stephen Curry put on show at AS Game
Contest was a tribute to how his approach has changed basketball
It shouldn’t have been a surprise. After all, Stephen Curry has turned regular-season NBA basketball games — events that the league seems hellbent on making more and more meaningless year after year — must-see television.
Of course he took the All-Star Game — an inherently frivolous event (and this season, a truly ridiculous one) and made it an enjoyable celebration of basketball greatness.
While Curry didn’t win the game’s MVP award, there was no question that he was the alpha of alphas on the court. He set the tone for the game, and the tone was joy.
It was another reminder of his indelible legacy on the sport.
There were players who didn’t want to be in Atlanta on Sunday. It’s hard to blame them. There were players who plotted ways to do the least amount of work possible — I’m looking at you, LeBron James — and again, that makes sense.
But Curry, instead of plotting ways to get it over with, decided that if he was going to be there, he might as well make it fun.
And Curry’s brand of fun is infectious. It’s a shame Curry has to work so hard when he’s playing with the Warriors that we don’t see that kind of fun.
Maybe I’m overstating it — maybe the All-Star Game would have been a good time no matter what — but I can’t help but think that Curry’s presence took the contest to a new level.
TUNE IN
WARRIORS AT LA CLIPPERS
When: Thursday, 7 p.m. TV: TNT
The All-Star Game has always been a bunch of guys trying cool in-game dunks — or in the case of Rudy Gobert, the most uncool dunks imaginable — but these days, it’s also bombs away from beyond the arc.
Yes, in a game with no defense, everyone was chucking. The 3-pointer is in their DNA, now, for better or for worse. Sixty percent of the shots in Sunday’s game were from beyond the arc.
You can blame Curry for that.
The further away we get from the genesis, the more we forget that before Curry, there weren’t players putting up 10 3-point attempts per game.
No offense to George McCloud and Ray Allen — the prodigious 3-point shooters of yesteryear — but they weren’t shooting off the dribble or and making 45 percent, either.
It was Curry who turned the 3-point shot from a novelty into a primary goal, who taught the league the overlooked truth that three is greater than two.
Well, at least when you shoot like him it is.
But take a moment to consider that: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook didn’t bring about a league full of copycats. Michael Jordan’s dunks didn’t change the way the game was played. (That said, the number of guys trying to shoot Jordan-like turnaround jumpers in the late and post-Jordan era cannot be forgotten and must be chastised.) But Curry is such a great 3-point shooter that not just a few players, but the vast majority of the league is trying to be like Steph. There are no other means to winning anymore.
You can’t blame anyone for trying to be like Curry. It’s not like Steph is built like LeBron or Zion Williamson. No one would have pegged him as a revolutionary. And, to their credit, a few players even have found ways to come close or match No. 30. Those players were on the floor Sunday.
And yet still, there’s no one quite like Curry. Sunday was a celebration of that fact.
Roughly halfway through the first quarter in Atlanta, Curry — who had already knocked down two corner 3-pointers (one came with some turnaround, no-look flair) — decided to shoot from the center-court circle.
The 33-foot shot went in, because of course it did.
Oh, did I forget to mention that Curry won the 3-point contest before the game tipped off, wiping the floor with the competition in the first round and then making things interesting en route to a victory in the final round? Yeah, he did that, because, well, of course he did.
In the second quarter, Curry shot from 34 feet. It went in, too. Duh.
At the end of the frame, when the only player in the NBA that can go toeto-toe with him shooting from distance, Damian Lillard, pulled up from half-court to make a 3-pointer, Curry matched him.
Because of course he did. He’s Steph Curry.
LeBron James was obviously elated to have Curry leading his team to a win. Despite being two of the best to ever play the game, Sunday was the first that that happened.
“Finally got to share the floor with @StephenCurry30! Well overdue and I loved every single second!!,” James tweeted after the game.
James also tweeted that Curry “changed how the game was played by himself alone.” He’s right. And while so many refuse to acknowledge the fact for reasons beyond logic, now that you know it, you’re not allowed to forget it.
No one knows how long Curry will keep playing at this incredible level — at any level at all. There’s never been a player like him, so it’s impossible to say how this story is supposed to end. Perhaps he’s the basketball Tom Brady, still breaking ankles and knocking down 40-footers in his 40s.
It sounds improbable, but is that notion any more ridiculous than a skinny 6-foot-3 kid from Davidson who we once thought could barely dunk (his alleyoop slam on Sunday was his most shocking made shot) winning titles for the Golden State Warriors, of all teams?
Of turning a 3-pointer into something as cool as a dunk?
Into completely changing the way the sport of basketball is played at the professional level, down?
I think not. But I do think that no matter how long we get with the Baby Faced Assassin, we spend a bit more time recognizing just how special he is.