Golden State Warriors: Give Stephen Curry the respect he’s earned

Stephen Curry has powered the Golden State Warriors for years now. He shouldn’t need a career-best night to validate that overwhelming fact.

In a way, the recent discourse about Stephen Curry in the last year and a half was almost inevitable. As much as he’s done to create a Hall-of-Fame legacy as the greatest shooter of all time, it’s difficult not to simultaneously acknowledge how favorable a situation the Golden State Warriors have afforded him to help build that status.

Getting to share a backcourt with arguably the second-greatest shooter of all time. Paired with one of the most versatile and cerebral two-way players in league history. Having a coach whose system puts all those traits to their best use along with role players who know how to fill in the cracks. Materializing the cap space out of thin air to sign a top-three player following a 73-win season.

Curry isn’t to blame for the good he’s been given. He didn’t break any tampering rules or orchestrate a super team through free agency — there’s no real issue with that either but some consider it to be the easy way out, a fast track to a title.

Golden State’s Big Three was constructed in the purest form: through the draft and without a pick higher than seventh to do it. Signing Andre Iguodala and certainly Shaun Livingston didn’t grab many headlines at the time. Kevin Durant would’ve been playing anywhere else had the player’s union not asked for the entirety of its revenue from the new TV deal to flow in all at once.

Nevertheless, with jealousy fueling both thoughts and words, opposing players and fans couldn’t help but salivate at the thought of watching Curry fall from his ivory tower when the foundation began to crumble.

KD departed for Brooklyn. Klay Thompson was out for the entire season rehabbing an injury. The team that was previously light years ahead had now been caught up to. Steph no longer had the safety net of two players equally capable of dropping 50 during his rare off nights or using the attention each commanded to free up looks for himself. If Curry didn’t produce in spite of all that was now working against him, the Dubs had no chance and, as the leading man, he’d amass most of the blame.

That might seem harsh like a harsh reality. As many have been quick to point out, it’s one guys like Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook and James Harden have spent years living in while trying to get past the immovable object that was the Warriors.

“It’s different than what it’s looked like over the last four or five years for him,” Lillard said of the new challenges facing Steph. “He’s trying to get quality looks and get a clean look so he can make a good one. You don’t really have that luxury to take one from that deep just to be taking it like in the past he might have, and I’m the same, getting a lot of attention from defenses.”

It was easy for Curry to thrive when struggling seemed like the more difficult feat. He dodged criticism amid poor outings because he had teammates who could pick up the slack enough to mask the struggles with a win. Steph once scored 11 points in a road Finals game and the Dubs still won because Durant had 43.

Championships evidently weren’t enough validation. With Thompson’s absence extending into the new season, Curry had to prove he ignited the Warriors dynasty and not the other way around by guiding his team to some range of success as a near solo act. And boy were people swift with their conclusions when he was anything less than perfect trying to do so.

It didn’t matter that Curry averaged 26.4 points, 6.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds a night through the season’s first five games, numbers in line with his production in recent years. Nobody cared that Draymond Green missed the first four games or that Golden State’s other players had yet to grasp Steve Kerr’s nuanced sets, greatly contributing to the team’s overall offensive struggles.

Haters saw consecutive blowouts to two of the east’s elite and efficiency struggles from a previous member of the 50/40/90 club. There was no patience in waiting for his teammates to acclimate to the read-and-react offense. That was viewed as an excuse to keep Curry from shouldering the burden — high usage and 20-plus shots a night — many believed he couldn’t carry.

That is until he did exactly that against the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night. Curry needed just 36 minutes and 31 shots to put up a career-high 61 points in a 137-122 victory. He “only” made eight triples on the night but fought his way to wind up 18-of-19 from the free-throw line.

After the mass hysteria caused by a suboptimal start, Golden State now holds the same winning percentage as the sixth-seeded Rockets. Curry is now averaging over 32 points a night with efficiency creeping back up to expected levels.

“There was nothing needed to be said before tonight,” Curry said, “and there is nothing needed to be said afterward.”

Could Curry step into the role assumed by LeBron James in just about single-handedly guiding his Cavaliers to the 2018 Finals? Is it possible for his slim frame to withstand the punishment needed to average north of 37 a night to drag his team to the playoffs as Damian Lillard did in the bubble last season?

The only answer that matters is the one that pays these hypotheticals no attention. Because whatever Curry may or may not be able to do shouldn’t take away from what he’s already accomplished.

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Only 12 pristine players have ever won back-to-back MVPs and Curry is among that group. And somehow in more than 60 years that the award has been handed out, Steph is the only one to receive a unanimous selection.

That he doesn’t have any Finals MVPs to go along with his three championships says a lot more about the greatness of Durant — and the uniqueness of what happened in 2015 where a rare lineup change proved to be the catalyst for three straight victories — than it does about Curry’s play. Because anyone else with Finals averages of 26.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists per game wouldn’t be accused of anything close to being just along for the ride.

“Everybody is always going to try to find a reason to nitpick something Steph does whether it’s ‘that you haven’t won a Finals MVP’ or ‘you haven’t carried a team,'” Draymond said after the Portland win. “If I’m not mistaken, he carried the 2015 team pretty damn far. To be honest, he’s carried every team.”

Maybe Curry couldn’t pull off the singular feats of dominance his contemporaries have, but could they have filled the shoes he’s worn for the last five years?

Could ball-dominant floor generals like Harden or Westbrook operate in an offense that keeps Steph on the move at all times to free up teammates without ever touching the basketball? After finishing one of the greatest offensive seasons in league history, would either be willing to actively recruit a player who would commandeer some of the spotlight they worked so hard to amass on their own?

A lone wolf run makes for an endearing story, even if it ends in a first-round exit. It got Westbrook an MVP in 2017. But the goal of any season is to emerge a champion, which doesn’t happen in the Bay Area without Steph. He’s had a lot go right to help him accomplish that goal but plenty of work was put in on his end to make it happen.

He has more rings than all the other starting point guards in the NBA combined. He is the greatest shooter who ever lived with an untouchable single-season 3-point record with the career mark within his sights.

Curry’s career-night was a quality reminder of all that’s helped him to superstardom over this last half-decade. But it wouldn’t hold as much significance in doing so if a selective group stopped zig-zagging the goal post to arrive at an arbitrary conclusion Steph has no business being near.