Skip Bayless claims that Steph Curry actually had his legacy saved by Kevin Durant back when the latter decided to be a Warrior in 2016.
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Steph Curry was being compared to Michael Jordan back in the 2015-16 season when his Golden State Warriors both had a 41-4 record. He won a title before Kevin Durant ever got to the Bay Area and regardless of the injuries to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, a championship is a championship.
Above all else, Curry and his Dubs bested KD and his Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference Finals in 7 games. The Thunder actually had a 3-1 lead and won Games 3 and 4 by a total of 52 points. Then of course, they would relinquish this series lead before losing Game 7.
While Steph Curry didn’t perform well in the subsequent 2016 NBA Finals, it was clear that the Thunder did not work with two guys who saw themselves as alphas.
With a Durant led team being the biggest threat to the Warriors’ continued title contention, they didn’t actually need to sign him. They just needed him to not be on the same team as an All-NBA caliber player.
Skip Bayless on Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.
Skip Bayless has become quite the Curry-hater in the past few seasons and he’s taken it to new heights ever since LeBron James stopped making it deep into the Playoffs. Interesting. Almost like he had to find a player who didn’t really have much to prove to hate on for the sake of it.
In this recent clip of his, he yells at the top of his lungs that Steph Curry ‘begged’ for Kevin Durant to join the Golden State Warriors to help ‘save his legacy’.
I wish KD never went to the Warriors. Trust me KD would be ringless without Steph. pic.twitter.com/mfwpj5WWNR
— jose (@KlayForTrey) July 4, 2022
First of all, this isn’t true in the slightest. While the Dubs as a whole (with Draymond at the helm of it all) did recruit him, KD showed interest in joining them well before.
As for the legacy part of it, Kevin Durant saved his own legacy by winning two straight Finals MVPs. Without those 2 rings alongside KD, Curry would still be a 2x champion, 2x MVP, and a Finals MVP to go along with countless All-NBA and All-Star selections. With or without the ‘Slim Reaper’, Curry has had a first ballot Hall-of-Fame type career.