San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Curry is so epic, he’s defining NBA’s epoch, not LeBron
Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ... Which player will define this NBA era? With all due respect to King James, it’s got to be Stephen Curry. Curry’s season, if it continues as it has gone so far, will be the cherry on the sundae, one of the more remarkable NBA seasons ever — a dazzling individual performance within a team concept, lifting a mediocre squad to relevance.
Wilt Chamberlain just called. He says he’s still got three guys guarding him, leaning on him, pounding him, as refs look the other way. Wilt says, “Tell Curry I know how he feels.” If I’m Curry’s agent, I get him a bonus clause: $5,000 for every time he hits the hardwood.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver better have a fruit basket and bottle of chilled Champagne waiting in Curry’s Atlanta hotel room when he checks in for the AllStar Game. It’s an epically bad idea, going ahead with the game, and only Curry can save it. Ask any kid you know who he or she most wants to watch in this garbage game. At home games, the A’s should station a security guard near their thirdbase dugout, assigned to protect Matt Chapman when he pursues foul balls. Call the guard “Holden,” like the kid in “The Catcher in the Rye.” The runner goes, and there’s the throw down to second base, and they got him! Out by a mile! What a throw by Buster Posey! That play is brought to you by Pampers, the diaper you throw out. Tim Tebow left the Mets after scuffling three seasons in the minor leagues. Next stop for Tebow: The NBA’s G League. Then: Cornhole. The theory that Curry is a late bloomer gains traction when you consider that he did not make an AllStar team until his fifth season. Even though in his fourth season Curry averaged 22.9 points and led the league in 3pointers made (272), shooting 45.3% from beyond the arc. He couldn’t get any voter love because he played for the Warriors. Something for Curry to shoot for: Oldest NBA AllStar ever. That honor now belongs to Michael Jordan, who was 39 when he made the squad because Vince Carter graciously stepped aside. Black History Month note: The NBA’s oldest firsttime AllStar was Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton, who was 34 when he played in the 1957 game. Clifton, a former Harlem Globetrotter, broke into the NBA in 1950, the second Black player ever drafted. OK, my math sucks. I wrote that the Giants’ realistic goal this season is to win one more game than they lose. Assuming a 162game season, this is impossible. A few readers bailed me out, noting that the Giants could finish 8181 and win a wildcard tiebreaker game. How about instead of an NBA AllStar Game, the AllStars do a big Zoom event, when they swap stories and trashtalk one another. The game itself, on the rare occasion that it is watchable, runs on enthusiasm, and the players won’t be bringing much of that to Tepidlanta (formerly Hotlanta). The 3point shootout could be done with each competitor shooting in his home arena. The dunk contest? Let’s give that a rest this year. What if the Warriors had done more than just kick the tires on James Harden, if they even did that? I was 157% against the Warriors even
thinking about trading for Harden, but who knows, maybe he would have Warriorized his game. Lord, Harden’s line in the Nets’ recent game against the Warriors: 19 points, 16 assists, eight rebounds, three steals, plus28. Nominated for oblivion: The term “silly foul.” A foul can be dumb, or careless, but should be described as “silly” only if it involves tickling, or tossing a bucket of confetti.