Stephen Curry talks trash. But not in the way you’d think.
“Talk” wouldn’t even be the correct term to describe how he delivers the goods to his opponents. He “talks” trash through expressive and highly explicit body language.
If he’s in a rhythm, he pulls out the shimmy. I feel good tonight, so y’all can’t do anything to stop me.
If he makes a three while being fouled, he uses his fingers to count to four. You know you just gave 4 easy points to me, right?
If he finishes through contact, he’s going to flex on the defense. Do you even lift, bro?
With Curry and his competitive fire, the devil’s in the details. He’s not going to get in someone’s face and trade barbs and insults – he’s simply not built to be that kind of player. Much like his leadership, which is contingent upon being someone who leads by example in lieu of loud declarations and vocal emotions – Curry very much gives it to opponents through his actions.
So when the Denver Nuggets put Facundo Campazzo to pester and bother Curry, it was clear that something awoke within Curry. Campazzo is 5-feet-10-inches tall – a full 5 inches shorter than Curry. For once, Curry had a defender in front of him who he could overpower and use his natural physical advantages against.
Campazzo proved to be a bit of a tough nut to crack, but for an all-time great such as Curry, it was inevitable that he was going to stamp his class on an inferior player.
The pull-up three wasn’t even the most noteworthy highlight from the sequence above.
Watch Curry as he goes back to the other end after making the shot. He shakes his head. He points back at Campazzo without even looking at him. He talks.
Nobody but the best lip readers out there can really tell what Curry said in that moment, but you can almost guess as to what he was trying to express.
He can’t guard me! He’s too small! I can’t even believe y’all tried to guard me with a smaller dude!
It’s as if Curry was offended that he was treated as such by the defense, that the Nuggets made it almost too easy for him to get his points in that possession.
Anyone who knows Curry well – those who’ve watched him, who knew what he had to go through to receive the kind of recognition the basketball world has given him – knows that he relishes the challenge of proving haters and naysayers wrong, as he has done for most of his life.
He’s too small? Doesn’t matter, because he’s skilled enough to make bigger guys look slow.
He’s too weak? He plays with his mind and his natural basketball instincts, traits that make even the strongest of defenders’ legs stumble around like they skipped leg all day.
He can’t jump high? He doesn’t need to, not when he has the quickest release in the league. Before you can even block it, the ball is out of his hands and into the net in a matter of seconds.
He doesn’t have the makings of a franchise player? He responded in kind by becoming the Golden State Warriors’ leading scorer in franchise history, with his 17,818 career points surpassing Wilt Chamberlain.
Going into the game against the Nuggets, Curry needed only 19 points to break the record. No one doubted he was going to break it that same night, not when he was on a six-game streak of scoring 30 or more points, a feat that was last accomplished by a Warriors player back in 1974, when Rick Barry scored 30-plus in 6 consecutive games.
It was inevitable that Curry, in one night, would become the franchise’s most celebrated player in terms of pure numbers. But no one expected he would accomplish it in the very 1st quarter:
Curry took care of that 19-point threshold in a matter of 11 minutes. The accolade was achieved, and the celebration and congratulations were sure to follow afterward.
Now, it was time to win the game. Knowing Curry’s thirst for winning and competitiveness, those 19 first quarter points were by no means enough for him to sit on his laurels and take in what he had just accomplished.
The Warriors had to win against the Nuggets. They needed to win. They had to make a statement against a top Western Conference contender, against the prohibitive MVP frontrunner in Nikola Jokić.
Otherwise, the Warriors were in danger of sliding further into a seasonal freefall, a collapse that would’ve been a travesty given that they had Curry’s transcendent greatness as a ballast against another disaster of a season.
Curry won’t win the MVP award – the Warriors are 26-28 and are grasping onto the 10th seed, trying to stay afloat and keeping their hopes of a playoff berth alive.
Their defense hasn’t been the problem – their defensive rating of 110.3 points allowed per 100 possessions is 9th in the league – but blocking punches isn’t going to win them many fights, not when they don’t have the ability to throw counterpunches of their own.
For the most part, the one Sunday punch the Warriors have had on offense has been Curry. The Warriors dynasty built their identity from having high-IQ playmakers who could pass and run their vaunted motion offense.
But the underlying truth of the matter is that the Warriors have always had to depend on Curry for their offense to flow seamlessly. That was true during the dynasty years, and it has stayed true during this post-dynasty struggle, with a younger and more inexperienced cast surrounding him.
Even with Curry missing just 8 games this year so far, the Warriors are still in the bottom half of the league in terms of offensive rating – 108.8 points per 100 possessions, 23rd in the league.
Quite frankly, they would most likely be dead last if it were not for Curry, whose minutes on the floor boosts the Warriors’ offensive rating to 112.7; without him, that rating drops to 100.4, which is worse than the Oklahoma City Thunder’s league-worst offense.
The 12.3-point difference that Curry has been singlehandedly responsible for has literally been the difference between success and misery. The Warriors are 25-21 in games Curry has played; in the 8 games that he has missed, they have lost all but one.
Curry will always give the Warriors a chance to win against anyone in the league, just because he is so talented and is a proven winner. He transforms the Warriors from being a lost cause to a unit that has a puncher’s chance of pulling through.
He might seem laid-back, nonchalant, and aloof at times, but that belies his drive to survive in a world that gave him almost a 0% chance of making it in the NBA, a drive that has saved the Warriors on many occasions this season.
He went on to score 34 more points after breaking Chamberlain’s record, but breaking records isn’t enough for him. Records mean nothing if the most important record of all – a win – wasn’t achieved.
The Warriors organization had conflicting goals this year: win and make the playoffs, all while developing the youth and getting ready for the future.
With James Wiseman’s meniscus tear putting a snag in the latter, the Warriors now had no excuse to not focus on the former.
Being the winner and competitor Curry is, it was as if he was finally able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. He could be free to chase victories, as he has always done throughout his life.
Curry’s 53 points against the Nuggets was his 3rd-highest mark this season. It was his 10th 50-plus-point game of his career, and his 7th 50-plus point game with 10-plus made threes. No one else in the league has more than 2.
Curry’s season stats alone are MVP-worthy: 30.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists, on shooting splits of 48.5/41.6/92.4 and 65.5% true shooting.
Since returning from a five-game absence due to a tailbone injury, Curry’s numbers have been stratospheric: 38.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.1 assists, on splits of 53.5/45.7/90.8 and 72.5% true shooting. He hasn’t scored less than 30 points in 7 consecutive games.
Again, Curry isn’t winning the MVP. He doesn’t have the narrative strength, nor does he have the team success to show for it.
But if MVPs were awarded based on the literal meaning of the word “valuable,” rather than a vague mishmash of narratives, records, and statistics, then there is arguably no one more deserving of the award than Curry, whose competitive fire has always been understated, but burns as fiercely as those of past basketball legends.
Curry is no Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. He won’t snarl at his opponents and make them feel inferior, as if they shouldn’t even be sharing a court with him.
He’s not Larry Bird, either – he’s not the type to walk in a room and look for whoever’s finishing 2nd place behind him, or look for whatever the scoring record is in an arena and consciously try to break it.
He’s much nicer, for the most part. He plays with joy and exuberance. He doesn’t look intimidating. But that is part of why he’s so deadly. He drops threes and layups on your head, and will smile while doing so. He’s going to shimmy and count to 4 if you touch him on a three-point attempt. He’s going to flex if you can’t even stop him underneath the rim.
But if you find yourself the target of a rare Curry trash talk session – You can’t guard me, you can’t stop me, you’re too slow! – then you know it’s going to be special. You know that Curry has his competitive gear on overdrive.
Most of all, you know that it’s going to be an extremely long night. – Rappler.com
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