Stephen Curry’s effortless performances make his game look pretty easy to pull off. But it’s difficult to gauge Curry’s greatness on the offensive end of the floor without having to guard his onslaught. Apparently, then-Minnesota Timberwolves player Jeff Teague found it the hard way. In fact, Teague was not happy at all with Curry’s cockiness in China. But when you are as great as Curry, confidence comes naturally. His shimmy on Teague during an exhibition game in China irked the latter profusely.
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Curry barely talks trash to the players on the court. Instead, he likes to engage himself with the fans in the arena and take their hearts out. That’s what he did against the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals. With over three minutes remaining in the third quarter in Game 6, Curry hit a clutch three-pointer off Draymond Green’s assist. He again hit another three from the top of the key and pointed to his ring finger even before the game was over. The Dubs guard immortalized the Night-Night and the ring finger celebrations after the 2022 NBA Finals.
Jeff Teague says he played the best defense of his life but could not stop Stephen Curry
Teague recently recalled the game that he played against Steph and KD’s Warriors squad in China during an exhibition in 2017. With a large stadium filled with thousands of fans, Teague said that he was locked in to defend the Chef even before the game started. However, that was not enough to stop the four-time NBA champion from getting his way. The Warriors’ star kept making shots, that too, without breaking a sweat.
“Thibs said that was the best he’s seen me play defense… and Steph scored 40”
“He started shimmying and I told him stop that hoe ass shit”
— warriorsworld (@warriorsworld) July 7, 2023
The 2021 NBA champion recalled that he was so frustrated with Curry that when the Warriors player made his signature shimmy celebration, he lost it. “At one point, he started doing that sh*t[gesturing a shimmy]. I told him, ‘Hey man, stop that ho* a** sh*t’,” Teague could be seen reliving the frustration in this clip posted by Warriors World. Steph scored 40 points at the end of the encounter and the Warriors defeated the Timberwolves 142-110.
Isiah Thomas puts Curry in the same category as Michael Jordan
Isiah Thomas, the NBA legend, recently appeared on a podcast and broke down the exact reason Steph Curry is one of the greatest and also why he is underappreciated. According to Thomas, the greatness of Curry lies in the fact that he has made smaller players believe that if they work on the fundamentals of the game, they can also make it to the league. Thomas also said that in sports, people like to hate the smaller player, and maybe that is why Chef is underappreciated.
However, the Pistons legend also said that for people inside the basketball community, Curry is in the same category as players like Michael Jordan. “Steph doesn’t get enough credit…by the people outside the sport. But the people inside of the sport, Steph Curry walk in the room, we all bow,” Thomas remarked. Perhaps it is time to pay our dues to greatness.
