Stephen Curry

The Golden State Warriors are again NBA champions. On Thursday night, they captured their fourth title in eight seasons, although this was the first one since the 2017-18 campaign. And there was one significant difference.

Stephen Curry is finally an NBA Finals MVP. In Golden State's previous three title-winning seasons of this era, that honor went to either Andre Iguodala (2015) or Kevin Durant (2017 and 2018). This time, it went to Curry.

Deservedly so, considering the 34-year-old point guard powered the Warriors past the Boston Celtics in six games. Curry averaged 31.2 points per contest and knocked down 31 3-pointers in the series (despite hitting none in Game 5).

Curry previously made 32 three-pointers in the 2016 Finals, and as Michael C. Wright of NBA.com noted, no other player since 1979-80 has made even 30 trifectas during a single playoff series.

There haven't been many players (if any) like Curry in the NBA's long history. He's a 6'2" guard with incredible long-range shooting skills who can take over a game on any given night by knocking down a plethora of three-pointers, some from well beyond the arc.

Now that Curry is also an NBA Finals MVP, he further solidified his placement among the league's all-time greats. And many have heaped praise on him since the Warriors' latest title victory.

Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post believes Curry's legacy will be how much he's changed the game with his unique skill set.

"He’s a top-tier immortal in NBA history," Brewer wrote. "And considering how good he looks at 34, he’s far from done. But now that he has submitted a signature Finals performance to the record books, perhaps there can be uninterrupted appreciation of his diverse impact on the game."

Scott Cacciola of The New York Times expressed a similar sentiment. He praised the "artistry" that Curry again showed while leading Golden State to the championship.

"It was a profound reminder of everything he has done to reshape the way fans—and even fellow players—think about the game," Cacciola wrote. "The way he stretches the court with his interplanetary shooting. The way he uses post players to create space with pick-and-rolls. The way he has boosted the self-esteem of smaller players everywhere."

It didn't take long for The Athletic's panel of NBA experts to reconsider where it should now place Curry on its list of the league's 75 all-time greatest players. In the outlet's initial rankings, it placed Curry at No. 15. It's not unreasonable to think he should now be even higher.

The Athletic's Jason Jones shared that he'd now put Curry as "certainly top-10." Jones wrote that he'd put Curry behind Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Kobe Bryant, but that he'd put Curry ahead of Larry Bird.

It's high praise to put a player in such illustrious company. But it shows how Curry continues to cement his legacy in the game, and that he's not done yet. There could still be more titles before he inevitably goes into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Golden State's latest title wasn't only about Curry, though. It marked a return to prominence for the franchise after the team had missed the playoffs each of the prior two seasons. Klay Thompson was finally healthy, and the Warriors got bigger contributions from youngsters such as Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga and more.

And as The Athletic's Sam Amick noted, Golden State's success again wouldn't have been possible without veteran forward Draymond Green.

"The beauty of this Warriors dynasty, this journey that was born out of a special bond between Curry, Green and Klay Thompson above everything else, is that all of them are vital to the cause," Amick wrote. "And after all the talk about Green’s struggles in these finals against Boston, his one-of-a-kind impact, intensity and two-way value were there for all to see when it mattered most."

The Warriors are cementing a place among the NBA's top dynasties. And they may not be done yet. They could be back competing for another championship next June, and they may further add to their legacy.

Utah Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert praised Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry for winning his fourth career NBA championship this week.

Speaking to TMZ Sports, Gobert gave Curry his props for leading the Dubs to their fourth title in eight seasons:

"He's definitely in the very rarified air," Gobert said. "He's at the top of the list, for sure."

Gobert went on to add, "I'm happy for him. I think he changed the game."

Curry played a huge role in the Warriors closing out the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday, as he led all scorers with 34 points, securing the first NBA Finals MVP award of his career.

While the 34-year-old Curry was already among the all-time greats before winning his fourth championship, he undoubtedly cemented his place in that conversation.

Despite being an eight-time All-Star, two-time NBA MVP, two-time scoring champion and the NBA's all-time leader in three-point field goals made, Curry still had a gaping hole on his resume entering this year's playoffs.

When Curry won his first title, Andre Iguodala was given the NBA Finals MVP award because of the way he impressively held then-Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James in check.

Golden State signed Kevin Durant after losing to the Cavs in the Finals the following year, and KD went on to win the next two NBA Finals MVP awards.

Durant left after his third season with the Warriors, and the team went into a major downturn, largely because of injury issues.

With Curry missing most of the 2019-20 season and Klay Thompson missing all of it, the Warriors finished with the NBA's worst record on the heels of five consecutive NBA Finals appearances.

Curry returned and played at a high level the following season, but with Thompson out again, the Warriors narrowly missed the playoffs by losing a pair of play-in games.

The Dubs seemingly had a chip on their shoulder this season, however, going 53-29 and running their way through the Western Conference during the playoffs.

With the old core of Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green meshing well with newer additions such as Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr., Jonathan Kuminga and others, the Warriors were perhaps the most complete team in the NBA this season.

Curry was the unquestioned leader, and he proved once and for all that he is capable of leading a team to a championship and being the best player on that team when it matters most.

Since the Golden State Warriors hired Steve Kerr as head coach in 2014 and kicked off the run of six NBA Finals in eight seasons, they've openly aspired to the kind of sustainable success the San Antonio Spurs have enjoyed for the past quarter-century. Kerr played for Gregg Popovich near the end of his career, winning two titles as a role player supporting David Robinson and Tim Duncan. As a coach, he's had his own Duncan in Stephen Curry. The similarities were too obvious, bordering on cliche.

But in winning their fourth title in eight seasons since the run began, Kerr, Curry and the Warriors have their proof of concept.

With Thursday's series-clinching win over the Celtics, the trio of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green picked up their 21st Finals win together. They've eclipsed the mark of 19 previously set by Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili for most wins in the Finals by an All-NBA trio in the past 50 years.

Even being here now, this far into the run, puts the Warriors in rare company. Winning this championship may be the start of something unprecedented.

The Warriors' 2022 title run, which comes after two seasons of missing the playoffs entirely due to injuries, has officially kicked off the third distinct era within this dynasty that started with their first Finals appearance and title in the 2014-15 season.

The constants have been Kerr and the star trio of Curry, Thompson and Green, but the Warriors teams that have made it this far have looked different around them. In eight years they've gone from a group of upstarts that won well ahead of schedule, to a superteam so dominant it had three years of think pieces about whether they were ruining the NBA, to the elder statesmen they once challenged, winning in different ways with different supporting casts on different age timelines, to a degree that's only been seen before in San Antonio.

That first Warriors title team, the one that lucked into unlocking Green as a starting power forward when David Lee suffered an injury in training camp, was built around Curry and Thompson as superstar shooters in their 20s surrounded by role players who were significantly older. Starting center Andrew Bogut was 30, forwards Lee and Andre Iguodala were 31. The first Spurs title team, too, won with a young generational superstar surrounded by much older veteran talent. At 22 in his second season, Duncan was the only player in the top eight in minutes played who was younger than 30, with the aging Robinson as his co-star.

The Warriors were even better the next year, winning an NBA-record 73 regular-season games but falling short in the Finals, and that 3-1 collapse led directly to their transition into the middle period, the one most people will remember as the definitive team of its era for many reasons.

Kevin Durant's arrival in Golden State in the summer of 2016 made the Warriors completely unbeatable for two seasons, and may have done so for even longer if he hadn't suffered a torn Achilles in the 2019 Finals against the Raptors and ultimately left for Brooklyn that summer. The bedrock of those three seasons of the Warriors was the same, with Kerr and the Curry-Thompson-Green triumvirate, but the presence of maybe the deadliest scorer of the modern era in the slot previously occupied by the solid but workmanlike Harrison Barnes completely changed the character of the team. It was all "the Warriors," but they weren't the same at all.

Neither were the mid-2000s Spurs with Duncan in his prime flanked by fellow All-Stars Parker and Ginobili. They won two titles in 2005 and 2007, the same number as the 1999-2003 Spurs, but the feel was different even though Duncan and Popovich were the constants of both eras. Those mid-2000s Spurs teams didn't blow opponents off the court for two years straight like the Durant-era Warriors did, but they were the defining team of a period of the league's history relatively bereft of star power.

This is also when the Spurs started to burnish their reputation for finding absolutely perfect role players to put around their stars—defensive specialist Bruce Bowen, sharpshooter Brent Barry, veteran scoring guard Michael Finley—leading to talk of "winning culture" and "the Spurs way," which many successful teams have tried to emulate but nobody has been able to successfully while winning at a high level for this long, until the Warriors.

The Warriors have developed a similar rep for finding ideal supporting players for their stars, starting with Shaun Livingston, who came on board for the first title run in 2014-15, and then JaVale McGee during the Durant years. Now, any role player who signs with Golden State for the minimum or mid-level exception—Otto Porter Jr., Nemanja Bjelica—is widely assumed to be a steal and a perfect glue guy, because the Warriors have hit on so many of these types of players before.

This version of the Warriors has officially entered their 2013-14 Spurs period. Curry, Thompson and Green are still here. But for the first time, with Jordan Poole and Jonathan Kuminga, there's a belief that the young talent the Warriors have drafted and developed could one day keep the run going even after those three are finished playing. Those later Duncan-Parker-Ginobili San Antonio teams were bolstered by Kawhi Leonard, a non-lottery pick who became a two-way dynamo and MVP candidate, and Danny Green, a reclamation project who found his perfect role as a 3-and-D wing and might have won Finals MVP in 2013 if San Antonio had won that series against the Heat.

The Spurs were poised to continue contending past Duncan's retirement in 2016 until Leonard's quad injury and subsequent departure from San Antonio sent them into the rebuild they find themselves in currently. The next generation of the Warriors aren't ready for that yet, but they don't need to be, not with Curry, Thompson and Green still this good.

By the time the Big Three ages out, though, things could be different.

It's a good time to be Stephen Curry.

One day after Curry won his fourth NBA championship, Davidson athletic director Chris Clunie announced the school will retire his No. 30 jersey at an Aug. 31 ceremony.

August 31st, 2022.

Director of Athletics Chris Clunie shares the news of celebrating the incredible Stephen Curry. pic.twitter.com/wUl78gzxEN

— Davidson Basketball (@DavidsonMBB) June 17, 2022

The announcement comes on the same day that head basketball coach Bob McKillop announced he was stepping down after 33 seasons.

Love you Coach! Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, my family, Davidson and every person you’ve impacted along the way. #TCC #greatdaytobeawildcat https://t.co/hG266yUyst

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) June 17, 2022

Curry played three seasons for the Wildcats from 2006 to '09. He was named Southern Conference Player of the Year twice and earned consensus All-American honors in 2007-08 (second team) and 2008-09 (first team).

The 2008 NCAA tournament was Curry's breakout moment on a national stage. He led Davidson to a 29-7 overall record and earned the No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region.

The Wildcats advanced to the Elite Eight with wins over Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before losing to eventual national champion Kansas. Curry averaged 32.0 points, 3.5 assists and 3.3 steals per game during that tournament run.

Curry is the school's all-time leader in points (2,635), three-point field goals (414) and three-point percentage (41.2).

After a successful three-year run at Davidson, Curry was selected No. 7 overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2009 NBA draft. He has gone on to lead the franchise to four titles, won two NBA MVP awards and earned his first NBA Finals MVP award in 2022.

Stephen Curry fleshed out his already-iconic resume on Thursday night when he was named NBA Finals MVP after leading the Golden State Warriors to their fourth title in the past eight seasons with a 103-90 victory over the Boston Celtics.

Appearing on 95.7 The Game's The Morning Roast with Bonta & Shasky (starts at 18:10 mark), Warriors general manager Bob Myers said that Curry's haters and detractors have "nothing left to say" about the two-time MVP.

Even though Curry was already on the short list of greatest players in NBA history before this postseason run, some analysts tried to suggest he was lesser than by virtue of not having a Finals MVP award.

Speaking to Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington on June 6, Tracy McGrady downplayed Curry's previous accomplishments when discussing his legacy:

"Because he has his career individually and with what he's accomplished with his team is tough. Because you’ve gotta think, he won a championship, right, against LeBron [James] that didn't have Kyrie [Irving], that didn't have Kevin Love. He didn't win the [Finals] MVP, right? Then he loses a 3-1 lead to LeBron, gets K.D., K.D. comes and wins two championships, so that gives Steph three championship but K.D. wins the two MVPs, right?"

There were certainly people out there who defended Curry, including former teammate Jeremy Lin prior to Game 6 against the Celtics:

1. Steph was the best player, on the best regular season team ever. And season MVP. And NBA champ. All before KD got there. In the same way DWade didnt need to validate his career before LBJ got to MIA, Steph didnt need to before KD got to GSW. Steph is one of the greatest EVER!

— Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) June 16, 2022

Curry never publicly spoke out against any of his critics, but adding the Finals MVP to his list of accomplishments did put him in rare company. The eight-time All-Star is one of six players in NBA history with at least four titles, multiple MVP awards and a Finals MVP.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, Curry joined LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Jerry West as the only players in history to average at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists per game in multiple NBA Finals.

Curry scored a team-high 34 points in Thursday's win. He scored at least 29 points in five of six games against the Celtics.

The Warriors became the fourth team in NBA history with at least four championships in an eight-season span. They join a group that includes the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.

The Warriors' seven championships in franchise history rank third all-time, behind the Lakers and Celtics (both with 17).

Bob McKillop's 33-season run as head men's basketball coach at Davidson has come to an end.

The 71-year-old announced his retirement Friday.

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, who played for the Wildcats from 2006 to 2009, thanked his college coach for the impact he made on his life:

Love you Coach! Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, my family, Davidson and every person you’ve impacted along the way. #TCC #greatdaytobeawildcat https://t.co/hG266yUyst

— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) June 17, 2022

McKillop played college basketball at East Carolina (1967-68) and Hofstra (1970-72). He began his coaching career in 1973 at Holy Trinity High School in Long Island, New York.

Eddie Biedenbach, who coached at Davidson from 1978 to 1981, hired McKillop as an assistant for one season in 1978-79. McKillop went back to coaching high school basketball in Long Island for 10 seasons.

The Wildcats hired McKillop as their head coach in 1989. The New York native went 4-24 in his first season with the program and didn't post a winning record until the 1993-94 campaign.

McKillop led Davidson to 15 regular-season conference titles and eight conference tournament titles between the Southern Conference and Atlantic 10.

The Wildcats made the NCAA tournament 10 times under McKillop. The 2007-08 season was the most successful in program history. They went 29-7 (20-0 in the Southern Conference), made the NCAA tournament as a No. 10 seed and advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Kansas.

Curry had his breakout moment on a national stage during that run. He averaged 32.0 points per game and shot 44.2 percent from three-point range in four games. The Jayhawks' 59-57 win over Davidson was their smallest margin of victory in the tournament.

Davidson lost to Michigan State, 74-73, in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament in what turned out to be McKillop's final game.

McKillop retires with a 634-380 career record in 1,014 games. He ranks 54th in NCAA history for wins as a men's Division I head coach.

Throughout Kevin Durant's three-year run in Golden State, Stephen Curry heard how he wouldn't have been able to win more titles had Durant chosen a different free-agent destination in 2016.

In the aftermath of winning his fourth NBA championship and first of the post-Durant era, Curry said this title felt a little sweeter.

“For sure. You bookend it,” Curry told Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. “That’s part of it. But nobody in October thought we’d be here. Now we are. With this group. Not compared to any group before it, so it’s pretty dope.”

Curry won his first Finals MVP in six tries against the Celtics, finishing with averages of 31.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists over the six-game series. Several times during the trophy presentation, Curry said the championship run "hit different."

“Just combining our championship pedigree and our experience with some fresh energy, some guys that are really hungry to take that next step,” Curry told ESPN's Lisa Salters. “But, we built this for 10, 11 years. And, that means a whole lot when you get to this stage because you know how to win, and everybody who’s been a part of that knows what it’s about. This one hits different. This one hits different for sure.”

"This one hits different."

Steph reflects after winning Finals MVP https://t.co/8kv43eKAJe

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 17, 2022

Durant signed with the Warriors in the summer of 2016, less than a month after Golden State became the first team to blow a 3-1 Finals lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors would win the title against LeBron James' Cavs each of the next two seasons, but Durant took home both MVP awards and was widely viewed as the best player on those teams—even if he was never embraced as much as Curry.

When Durant left the Warriors in 2019 to form another "super" team in Brooklyn, it looked like the dynasty left with him. Golden State failed to make the playoffs each of the last two seasons with Thompson, Curry and Green all battling through various injuries.

Even as the respect between Curry and Durant remains, there was likely a little internal competition between the two as to who could win a championship first after their separation.

If there was any doubt left about Stephen Curry's legacy (fair or not), the 2022 NBA Finals has put that to rest.

After scoring 34 points in the Golden State Warriors championship-securing 103-90 win on Thursday, Curry was given the trophy he watched Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant receive in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

🗣️🗣️🗣️

STEPHEN CURRY IS FINALS MVP pic.twitter.com/zgS7zMbfhu

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) June 17, 2022

After the Game 6 win, he's in truly rarified air.

On top of his four titles, Curry has two regular season MVPs, two scoring titles and a Finals MVP. Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan are the only other players in league history to match or exceed all three benchmarks.

His legacy is now impossible to nitpick. Really, it should've been before this series, but that didn't stop some from trying.

After Game 1, Fadeaway World pointed out, "Stephen Curry Lost 8 Of His Last 9 NBA Finals Games Without Kevin Durant." At the beginning of this season, Skip Bayless, a longtime champion of this argument, tweeted, "No way Steph has his last two championship rings without Kevin Durant."

Seven months earlier, Durant himself entered the fray:

https://twitter.com/sleiman_jp/status/1384669928330907661

And he added to the debate a couple weeks ago.

In a soundbite from Draymond Green posted on Twitter, the Warriors' point forward said, "Steph Curry got double-teamed probably seven times the amount that KD did in a given series."

After someone tagged Durant, he responded:

From my view of it, this is 100% false… https://t.co/of6pFJUfvi

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) May 31, 2022

Now several years into this era of sports and social media culture, we should be used to this. There wasn't much reason to measure Curry up to Durant. He didn't need another championship to secure his place in NBA history.

But we need stuff to talk about. And talk and talk and talk about.

To many, it didn't matter that while Durant was in Golden State, the Warriors were plus-10.9 points per 100 possessions when Curry played without KD (compared to plus-3.1 when Durant played without Curry).

It didn't matter that he was already the undisputed greatest shooter of all time, with a seemingly impossible-to-catch combination of volume and efficiency from three.

Top 8 in career threes made (with eFG% in parentheses)

Stephen Curry: 3,117 (58.1)
Ray Allen: 2,973 (53.0)
James Harden: 2,593 (52.5)
Reggie Miller: 2,560 (54.4)
Kyle Korver: 2,450 (57.4)
Vince Carter: 2,290 (48.9)
Jason Terry: 2,282 (51.7)
Jamal Crawford: 2,221 (47.7)

— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) June 17, 2022

It didn't matter that he's the league's only unanimous MVP.

One more boogeyman had to be concocted and defeated by Curry. And now that that boogeyman is left in the wake of another shooting barrage, the legacy talk has to be more "Curry vs. the rest of NBA" than "Curry vs. Durant."

Three years ago, Bleacher Report put Stephen Curry at No. 10 on a list of the 50 greatest players in league history. The reaction was, well, spirited.

After this run, it might be harder to argue for keeping him out of the top 10.

2x MVP (Only unanimous winner)
4 rings
Finals MVP
Regular season wins record
Greatest shooter ever
8x All-NBA

It’s going to hurt some of you, but he’s bumping somebody out of that top 10

— Josh Eberley 🇨🇦 (@JoshEberley) June 17, 2022

He now has as many championships as LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal (and is only one shy of Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan).

On top of the individual accolades listed at the top of this piece, his basic playoff numbers of 26.6 points, 6.2 assists, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 threes are unmatched. Even if you drop the three-point qualifier, the list only includes Curry, Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Jerry West.

And those numbers don't even begin to fully illustrate Curry's impact.

Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Curry is plus-5,690 in 20,648 regular and postseason minutes. Draymond is second on that list with an individual plus-minus of plus-4,710, nearly 1,000 points behind Curry, who missed all but five games of the 2019-20 season.

When Curry is on the floor, he truly bends it. The most obvious examples of that are his way-beyond-the-line threes that force defenders to pay attention the moment he passes halfcourt.

STEPHEN
CURRY
🤯 pic.twitter.com/o4dc8nZbwA

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) June 17, 2022

But it goes beyond that. Curry is an all-time off-ball mover, and his perpetual motion routinely scrambles defenses. He'll cut, set screens, give the ball up to get it back and generally play within a system better than most of his peers. That movement makes him incredibly difficult to follow for 24 seconds, and the second someone slips up, entire defenses scramble.

Where's Curry?!

When that happens, and multiple guys sprint to find him, Curry's teammates are left with wide-open looks. It's been happening for years, and this championship proves the league still hasn't figured him out.

LeBron impacts the game through his skillset, but nobody makes a defense panic and screw up like Curry does. And that doesn’t work if he’s not willing to play off-ball like so many of his peers won’t. https://t.co/b77LitYtQM

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) June 8, 2022

The best demonstration of that impact may be evolution of Andrew Wiggins.

In five-plus seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wiggins had a well-below-average 47.6 effective field-goal percentage. With the Warriors, he's at 54.1.

Certainly Wiggins' commitment to better shot selection deserves some credit, but that doesn't fully explain the leap. Curry's gravity doesn't just attract defenders. It lifts teammates.

If he continues to do that with a young core that now includes Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and James Wiseman, Curry and his Warriors will still be the standard, seven years after his first title.

During this run to his fourth, he had to knock off two-time MVP Nikola Jokic and rising stars Ja Morant, Luka Doncic and Jayson Tatum.

Whether it's league history or the next wave of NBA talent, Curry just keeps beating everything in his path.