Stephen Curry recently sat down with ESPN’s Malika Andrews for a conversation before Christmas Day. When the ESPN reporter asked him about the “gift” that he wanted to leave behind for the league, Steph chuckled knowingly. He knew that the conversation was going towards him revolutionizing the game of basketball with his three-point shots.
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He said, “I don’t think you want me to answer that question because it’s now the talk of the talk of how everybody is shooting threes.”
Interestingly, a lot of the blame for the NBA’s recent dip in ratings has fallen to teams shooting too many threes to make the games boring. However, Curry didn’t think the situation was that dire. The four-time NBA Champion said that he loves the fact that the league followed in his footprints.
“If you think about the sheer numbers of it, yeah, but how you create threes and the beauty in the game, like, everybody does it just a little bit differently. It’s new and a lot of people have a little different viewpoint on it,” he added. For Steph, it has been a great experience to see the game evolve into what it is today.
However, the same evolution has also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. But Steph couldn’t care less about people’s opinions. He said, “It’s not like I can go out and do a 360 windmill and drive down the lane and dunk on somebody.”
Steph stated that no matter what people say, he is never going to undermine the importance of three-point shots in the game.
In his opinion, the defense will eventually adjust to make the three-point shooting difficult as well. He thinks that it’ll take some time. Meanwhile, he is going to keep shooting the ball from long-range and help his team win games.
Three-point shots are being ridiculed now
The game hasn’t changed in the last few months. It has been in the works for years. However, recently there has been an influx of opinions against the idea of shooting the ball frequently. From Shaquille O’Neal to LeBron James, many notable names have said their piece on the issue. Shaq believes that the league’s declining viewership can be equated to the same.
On an episode of his podcast, Shaq said, “Steph Curry and those guys messed it up. I didn’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but not every team is a three-point shooter, so why does everybody have the same strategy?” He believes that the game has become “boring” because everyone is doing the same thing.
When asked about the poor quality of All-Star games in recent years, LeBron said, “Obviously, the last couple of years have not been a great All-Star Game on Sunday night. But it’s a bigger conversation. It’s not just the All-Star Game; it’s our game in general. Our game…there’s a lot of f****ng threes being shot. So it’s a bigger conversation than just the All-Star Game.”
Even if these legends are right in their assessment, Steph’s point stands true as well. He has a physical disadvantage against the likes of LBJ and other bigger players in the league. So, he had to find a way to impact the game, and becoming the greatest shooter of all time was one way to go about it.
