Two biggest names in NBA to do battle
League’s newest superstar meets game’s best player with title at stake
OAKLAND, Calif. — Stephen Curry doesn’t quite know when it happened, when he crossed over from being the cuddly overachiever to such a level of fame that fans’ desire for handshakes, autographs or selfies interrupted his ability to enjoy a casual dinner at restaurants.
LeBron James is so far removed from a period when he wasn’t a household name that he has grown accustomed to moving around, having gawkers frozen in awe or clearing a path so that they can capture the best image from a smartphone.
“He’ll never sneak in a room and you not know,” Curry said.
Curry and James arrived at celebrity at different stages in life, yet they find them- selves in the NBA Finals as the two most popular figures in the game.
Curry edged James in All-Star votes. James topped Curry in jersey sales.
And both have combined to make the matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers one of the
most anticipated in recent years with their contrasting games and rivaling fame.
Curry is the baby-faced assassin whose relatively diminutive size and cartoonish shot-making have made him accessible and relatable to fans with hoop dreams.
His dribbling escapades and 3-point bombs become nightly viral sensations, playing out on continuous Vine loops and hilarious, head-shaking reactions on social media. Curry has become such a sensation that his adorable 2-year-old daughter, Riley, emerged as a star this postseason with her animated postgame podium appearances.
“She’s breaking down film with me. She’s my biggest critic at home,” Curry joked when asked how she has prepared him for this moment.
James comes across as a lab creation, embodying the physical and mental tools of past greats while accomplishing otherworldly feats that are unattainable even with an active imagination.
A two-time champion and four-time Most Valuable Player, James has lived up to — and, to some, surpassed — the immense hype that came with being anointed the chosen one early in his career.
He arrives on a familiar stage, having plowed through the Eastern Conference despite a diminished supporting cast that includes a hobbled three-time All-Star in Kyrie Irving (left knee tendinitis) and an absent three-time All-Star in Kevin Love (left shoulder surgery).
James said earlier this week that this is “the best I’ve been” but backtracked a bit when asked to explain further.
“If I was to say just my game, I wouldn’t think so,” James said, citing his performance in 2009 with a Cavaliers team that lost in the Eastern Conference finals at the top. “But I think now when you put my whole body of work, as far as how I approach the game mentally as well as my game, I’m very, very confident in my ability to be able to see the game even before the game is played.”
James is no longer just playing against the opposition or where he ranks among the all-time greats. He has the challenge of uplifting a community that has been downtrodden by a 51-year championship drought, one he complicated by abandoning to win elsewhere.
Now back in Cleveland, James is making his fifth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals — something that hasn’t been done since those dynastic Boston Celtics of the 1960s — and having fun with the whole spectacle.
“They tired of seeing me here,” James shouted to his teammates at Wednes- day’s practice. “Five years straight! They tired of seeing me.”
James is the only player with the reputation and prominence to make a player who won the MVP award and led a team to at least 67 wins for the 10th time in NBA history into anything less than a prohibitive favorite.
All 10 teams to reach the NBA Finals after winning 80 percent of their regular-season games have gone on to win the championship, but betting against James is never easy.
“He’s a great talent,” Curry said of James. “You know he’s going to be ready for big moments. There is no time that you can take a possession off against him. You’re not going to totally shut him down.”
Curry’s Warriors present the fifth op- ponent with a current or former MVP that James has met in his six Finals appearances, holding a 1-3 record against Tim Duncan’s Spurs and Dirk Nowitzki’s Mavericks.
Kevin Durant won the MVP award two years after losing to James in the 2012 NBA Finals. Curry is looking to become the sixth player in NBA history — and the first since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000 — to win his first MVP award and first championship in the same season.
Curry’s emergence coincides with the league-wide embrace of the 3-pointer, a shot that Curry has weaponized to the point that the sight of him dribbling up the court and pulling up from deep could inspire as much, if not more, fear than James lowering his head and attacking the rim for a dunk.
The ascension has been staggering, considering how Curry was lightly recruited out of high school, but James recognized that Curry was a special talent and even drove up to Detroit to watch Curry lead Davidson in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2008.
“I saw a kid who didn’t care how big someone was, how fast someone else was, how strong someone else was. He just went out and played,” James said of Curry, who scored 33 points in a win over Wisconsin. “He wasn’t going to let anything, as far as the analytics when it comes to size, power, strength, speed, stop him from what he was able to do.”
Both have tried to manage their fame by trying to keep life simple off the court. Curry planned to get a haircut and relax by the pool in anticipation of today’s Game 1.
James found time to see the movie “Pitch Perfect 2” and enjoy a burger outdoors at a restaurant in Ohio during the extended break.
“I do normal stuff,” James said. “I think I do.”