Stephen Curry recently led the Golden State Warriors to their fourth NBA title. Coincidentally, this is the same number of rings that LeBron James has between the 3 teams he has played with in his NBA career.
The concept of “GOAT” or the greatest of all time has long been discussed. Michael Jordan and LeBron James have always dominated the stage for this discussion. However, since Curry has won the same number of chips as LeBron and has done so on the same team as Jordan within a similar time window, one has to consider whether he can surpass LeBron in the eyes of modern fans.
It’s always controversial to compare NBA players. However, it’s safe to say that Steph has been the bigger face of the NBA lately. This is in comparison to LeBron James. Also, a big reason for this is that King James was in the spotlight from 2004 to 2016. He was also a hyped draft prospect.
Steph may have surpassed LeBron in terms of popularity in modern times simply because he is who he is. Curry is only about 6ft 3 tall and weighs 180 pounds. Therefore, anyone who sees him play might think: “Hello, I can do that too“.
Most of these fans clearly don’t have his natural ability or work ethic. Whatever the case, there’s something relatable about Curry’s playstyle. He revolutionized the game from the three-point line. To such an extent that there is almost nobad shot” even in the context of jacking up ill-advised three-pointers.
Curry is a guard with elite grips and ridiculous firing speed and release. As such, he is unstoppable on his own in any scenario against all-time greats. However, the critics don’t include him in the GOAT convo due to his size and tendency to be a defensive liability at times.
Those same critics seem to forget that Curry’s shooting stretched the ground enough that any player could be a defensive liability. These are some of the reasons he could be considered the GOAT by modern standards, especially for future generations.