ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith believes Stephen Curry will have a greater impact than Wilt Chamberlain on the NBA.
Advertisement
Earlier this year, Steph Curry surpassed Wilt Chamberlain as the all-time scoring leader of the Golden State Warriors. The baby-faced assassin has scored 18,434 points so far and is still at the prime of his career.
17,784 points & counting. The most ever by a Golden State Warrior.
Congrats to Stephen Curry on moving past Wilt Chamberlain as the franchise’s all-time scoring leader 👏 pic.twitter.com/qU7UXYUuMP
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 13, 2021
While Curry has played all his 12 seasons with the Warriors, the team that drafted him in 2009, Chamberlain only played 6 seasons with the franchise.
Comparing their respective stats with the Warriors, Chamberlain averaged 41.9 PPG in the 429 games he played for the franchise and shot 55.5% from the free-throw line.
On the other hand, the franchise’s golden boy, Steph Curry, has averaged 24.2 PPG in the 762 games he has played so far. The 3x NBA champion has sunk 2832 three-pointers and shot 90.7% from the free-throw line.
The two superstars played in completely different eras. There have been 5 rule changes since Chamberlain played in the NBA that include offensive and defensive goaltending, size of the paint area, free-throw shooting, and imbounding the ball.
First Take analyst Stephen A. Smith makes his case for Stephen Curry
Smith spoke about the change in rules that took place after Chamberlain retired from the game. The analyst touched upon the free-throw shooting at the time, stating that players during the era were allowed to leap and dunk the ball instead of only being allowed to shoot from the line.
Thus the NBA had to change the rules limiting it to only shooting from the line as far as free throws were concerned. Wilt Chamberlain never shot free throws and would always dunk the ball.
According to Smith, that was not the case with Curry, who is the greatest marksmen, the league has ever seen.
“Steph Curry is the greatest shooter god ever created, period. There has never been a shooter in the history of the sport created by James Naismith that has been better than Steph Curry.”
Co-panelist and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins heaped praises of the former unanimous MVP, calling him a generational talent. Both Smith and Perkins agreed on the fact that Curry has changed the way the game has played.
Probably the most influential player since LeBron James, Steph Curry has revolutionized the game of basketball. Stephen A. Smith even compared the Warriors superstar to legend Michael Jordan, as far as impact on the game and offense was concerned.
