Former Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks played Richard Jefferson appeared on the Road Trippin’ podcast. Speaking about a range of NBA-related topics, Jefferson was asked about the recent Stephen Curry–Magic Johnson debate. After undermining Curry’s claims about being the greatest point guard over Magic, he talked about the San Antonio Spurs empire. Jefferson made the claims during the 1st September episode of the Road Trippin’ podcast.
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Curry’s claims have led to a raging debate about his credentials as the greatest-ever shooting guard. The discussion eventually led to the overall topic and the importance of winning. Jefferson ended up taking the example of Tim Duncan, claiming that he was the system during his time at the Spurs.
Richard Jefferson has his say on the Magic Johnson-Stephen Curry debate
Jefferson was initially asked about the Curry-Magic debate. Formerly a teammate of LeBron James, he claimed Johnson’s impact in the NBA was unparalleled.
Jefferson talked about how Curry’s career took a few years to take off in the NBA. However, Magic Johnson was already the best player on a championship team when he joined the NBA:
“Steph’s career did not start unitl Mark Johnson did not show up, he broke the 3-point record, I wanna say 4th year, there were three years before that, right? Steph also didn’t show up with Kareem and Norm Nixon. Steph didn’t have that, to compare, but the fact that Magic Johnson was a bad enough man to show up and be the best player of a championship team as a rookie, and out up 40 points, as a rookie, bro, people can’t do that in their prime. He was just getting started.”
Furthermore, while Magic Johnson had clear stars in his team that he was better than, Curry did not. Jefferson, within minutes, then went on to talk about the importance of winning, bringing up Tim Duncan.
“He won a 1000 games. Tim Duncan won a 1000 games, I only played in 1100, and I played 17 years. He is the system.”
Duncan, who finished with a record of 1001-391 in the NBA, won the championship 5 times. Jefferson claimed that while he had one of the best coaches in history, it was Tim Duncan who was “the system.”
Shaquille O’Neal compared Curry and Magic Johnson’s NBA achievements
While Curry is undoubtedly the best shooter of all time, his CV may fall a bit short when compared to Magic. Recently, after Curry made the greatest-ever claims, Shaquille O’Neal decided to make the comparison on Instagram
While Curry himself is a serial championship winner, he still needs to win another ring in order to match Magic’s 5. Furthermore, the list of individual accolades also sees Magic being ahead.
While Shaq did not comment on the claim, he seemed to suggest what the numbers were doing. Apart from the achievements, the fact that Magic Johnson was also the better defensive player was not even talked about.
