Stephen Curry has undoubtedly made his case for the greatest point guard in NBA history conversation. However, given the greatness of Magic Johnson, many in the NBA community still find it difficult to bestow that title on the Golden State Warrior just yet. In fact, after Curry claimed that he was indeed the best, all hell broke loose. For some time now, absolutely everyone in the NBA community has felt the obligation to reveal their opinions on the matter. Interestingly enough, Curry’s personal trainer, Brandon Payne, recently added to the conversation.
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Revealing his opinion on the matter, Michael Jordan recently texted ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, dubbing Johnson as the greatest point guard ever. While he awarded Curry a close second spot, Jordan made sure to underscore the point that Magic and Curry’s resumes are in no way comparable.
However, while it’s easy to get behind Jordan’s opinion, Brandon Payne seems to disagree. Dubbing Curry the greatest point guard ever, the veteran trainer explained his reasoning by revealing a story of Curry’s undying drive during a recent interview with Sportskeeda.
Brandon Payne explains why Stephen Curry is the greatest point guard ever
Having been his personal trainer for years now, Brandon Payne has had a front row seat to Stephen Curry’s greatness. Throughout his time with the Dubs guard, Payne has been able to witness quite a lot to form a definitive opinion. Take a look at NBA Central’s tweet below, where he explains his opinion on Steph.
“He’s quite possibly the most skilled basketball player that has ever played. He has the combination with his skill level, his decision-making ability and his level of conditioning. As his career has gone on, he has had increasing level of strength. You have a player that is great at all of those things.”
This excerpt comes from his interview with Sportskeeda’s Mark Medina. Along with these compliments, Payne also revealed a story about Stephen Curry doing a drill, which displayed why he is the greatest shooter ever. Here is what he said:
“We had a drill we do where you can’t miss consecutive shots. If you miss consecutive shots, the entire drill starts over again. It’s a long drill, and one that Steph has completed before with relative ease.”
“…for Steph, this took place at the end of the day when Steph had a full day of meetings and he’s practicing at 9 o’clock at night. Steph Curry was still shooting the ball great at 80 or 85%.”
“About 15 to 20 minutes into it, he’s in the fifth or sixth time trying to get through it…I looked at him and said, ‘It’s been a long day. If we don’t finish tonight, it’s not the end of the world.’ For the first time ever, he looked at me like, ‘What the h*** are you talking about? We’ve never given up on a drill and we’re not going to start tonight.’”
There are many who love the game of basketball but likely would have given up along the way somewhere. The fact that Curry was willing to not only do the drill after a long day but also keep at it until he got it right is a testament to his greatness. It is one of the biggest reasons why he might just be the greatest point guard of all time.
However, it has to be noted here that Payne’s opinion is quite naturally likely to be biased. Since he trained Curry personally for so long.
Stephen Curry left himself off his own all-time starting five
Recently, Steph sat down with Buzzfeed for a ‘puppy interview’, where a number of puppies played around with him as he answered questions. Here, he was asked to reveal his all-time starting five. The following was his response.
“I would pick Shaquille O’Neal as my center, Tim Duncan as my power forward…Michael Jordan as my shooting guard…I’m taking Kobe as my small forward, Jordan as my shooting guard and Magic Johnson at point guard. I won’t be on the team.”
Admittedly, it is a little surprising that he picked Magic Johnson ahead of himself, despite now saying that he may be the greatest ever. However, to be fair to him, given how close it is between the two, it is possible that his opinion has been flip-flopping a little over time.
