Stephen Curry has recently slid into the conversation of the best to ever do it, but is the Warriors’ guard really better than LeBron James?
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There has been a narrative about Stephen Curry getting into the greatest of all-time conversations since he broke the record for most threes in NBA history, previously held by Ray Allen.
People like Stephen A Smith of ESPN even raised the question, ‘has Curry crossed LeBron James as the icon of this generation?’. One of the greatest power forwards of all time, Kevin Garnett recently said the Dubs point guard is ‘the Michael Jordan of this era.’
Kevin Garnett calls Stephen Curry the ‘Michael Jordan’ of this era: https://t.co/tPHkZ4TUPb
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) January 5, 2022
But is the man even the best point guard ever? Has he even crossed Magic Johnson to get into a conversation about being close to MJ? Let’s break it down.
Stephen Curry is yet to close down on LeBron James in GOAT conversation
There’s no question on people who have started following NBA around 2014 or so to see Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant as the best players of all time. This Dash Radio’s State Of The Lakers podcast host breaks it down really well.
No, Steph is not the Michael Jordan of this era. pic.twitter.com/vYEGUO0sLN
— Jason Timpf (@_JasonLT) January 7, 2022
The Golden State Warriors were sort of an immortal team who could have been the biggest dynasties of all time, had the Slim Reaper not left. Even if he stayed, Curry wouldn’t end up in GOAT conversation ever, instead, KD would.
That dynasty started because Stephen Curry and Co with the best NBA regular-season record, couldn’t beat LeBron James’ Cleveland. That’s not the only time the 2-time MVP underperformed in the NBA Finals.
In his 4 NBA Finals appearances, he has zero finals MVP. Whereas MJ had 6, LBJ has 4, and Magic had three. Every other player in the top-5 conversations has at least two Finals MVP.
Curry can still grab a few championships and a couple of Finals MVP to make his case for the top-10 all-time. However, he won’t surpass Mike or LeBron.
Although the Chef is a better scorer, he’s not even half the playmaker as Magic was to be even considered the greatest point guard of all time. He’s sort of the best hybrid guard of all time.
When you consider defense and being the floor general, he wouldn’t come close to Isiah Thomas as a point guard, whom still every old-school coach would select way before Stephen Curry as a draft pick.