Winning’s what matters
Titles, not personal honors, are driving force for Curry
OAKLAND, Calif. — Before the NBA Finals began, Stephen Curry could only chuckle at how long it took someone to inquire about how badly he wants to add a finals MVP to his decorated resume. Maybe a minute passed. Curry has earned two NBA MVPs, set the singleseason 3-point record, captured a pair of championships and is on the cusp of a third. He doesn’t need the finals MVP; another title will do just fine.
Curry and teammate Kevin Durant were the front-runners for series MVP as the Warriors entered Game 4 on Friday night in Cleveland up 3-0 on LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
“It took (till) the second question of my first media availability, so I’m pretty sure that narrative’s going to take (on) life, as it has since 2015,” Curry said. “But it doesn’t make or break my career. If we win this championship and I don’t win finals MVP, I’m going to be smiling just as wide.”
If he could edge out Durant, Curry would join James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone and Tim Duncan as players with a pair of NBA MVPs and a finals MVP.
Not that Curry was thinking about any of that. He’d gladly settle for a second straight victory parade.
“It’s part of my motivation to try to get back to this stage because I want more championships,” he said. “But I’ve never really highlighted the individual type (of honors) — even before my regular-season MVPs, I’ve never really attacked it
as if that was the goal.”
Still, the undersized point guard out of Davidson has defied the critics. Curry knows how much he has meant to the franchise during this special four-year stretch.
And this might have been the toughest season yet for Curry, even counting all those losing seasons early in his career, multiple injuries and so much missed time. He sat out the entire first round of this year’s playoffs against the Spurs.
Curry’s typically steady shot has been inconsistent too. But as he always does regardless of whether they’re going in, Curry has kept firing 3-pointers.
He reached a mind-boggling 0-for-9 Wednesday before finally making one from deep against the Cavaliers — just three days after knocking down a finalsrecord nine from beyond the arc. That frustrating Game 3 performance, which concluded with Curry scoring 11 points on 3-of-16 shooting in a 110-102 win, epitomized his topsy-turvy season.
“I’m going to play aggressively, confidently, with that right energy and motivation to help my team win,” Curry said. “And usually when I’m in that mindset, good things happen.”
But even on a night when his shot wasn’t falling and he got outshined by Durant, Curry connected when the game was on the line. That’s just what he does as the Warriors’ dependable star.
“I think Steph really sets the tone more than anybody for what our culture is about,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.