Warriors
Everyone wants to take down the champion. Just ask Tom Brady and the Patriots. People want to beat the best because they want to be the best. As they say, the only way to be the champion, is to take down the champion.
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In last season’s NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors took down the Cleveland Cavaliers in game six. After having a historic season, breaking all sorts of records, having the #1 rated offense and defense, and winning the NBA Finals, people still ridicule the Golden State Warriors.
The haters state that the Warriors are “lucky” to have won the NBA finals, claiming that if the Cleveland Cavaliers were healthy, the Warriors would have lost to King James and his minions. Certainly, this is true. The absence of Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving was helpful for the Warriors and it did hurt the Cavaliers chances. However, at the same time, every team deals with injury issues in the postseason. Fortunately for the Warriors, they weren’t missing many players, but Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes and several other team members had their health problems throughout the season.
Even top coaches critiqued the Golden State Warriors. Coach Doc Rivers stated, “You need luck in the West. Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs. But that’s also a lesson for us; when you have a chance to close, you have to do it.” Seriously though, it’s not the Warriors fault that the Cavaliers were injured. Even the Celtics, coached by Rivers, won the NBA Finals against a Lakers team that was missing Hall of Famer Karl Malone.
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Stephen Curry’s had enough and finally responded to the people calling him “lucky.” “I apologize for us being healthy. I apologize for us playing who was in front of us,” said Curry. “I apologize for all the accolades we received as a team and individually. I’m very, truly sorry, and we’ll rectify that situation this year.”
But Curry is sending more than just this verbal message. He is sending a message on the court. Currently, Curry is leading the Warriors to an unbelievable start to the season. The Warriors are now 10-0 and are pursuing the NBA’s best start to the season in the history of the NBA. The best ever starting record is 15-0, held by two teams, the Washington Capitols (now Wizards) and the Houston Rockets.
If the Warriors can win six more games in a row, they will seize the record. Based on the first 10 games, the Warriors look unstoppable. Most teams have been demolished by the Golden boy and his fellow shooters. Memphis was defeated by a 50 point margin and the Warriors are yet to be held under 100 points scored.
Stephen Curry is leading his pack to these victories. His stat line is absolutely ridiculous and is getting comparisons to Jordan in his prime. Currently, Curry is making everything he shoots in the air, leading the league in scoring with 33.3 points per game. James Harden is in second place with 28.8 points per game. Curry is also getting 5.3 rebounds a game, 5.6 assists per game, and 2.6 steals per game. Curry is doing all of this with a 37.27 player efficiency rating and the 19th highest shooting percentage in the league. These stats are legitimately Jordan-like, if not better.
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While Jordan and Curry are clearly two different kinds of beasts, they both are something special. Even Kevin Garnett has jumped to make a slight comparison of the two. Regardless of the similarities and differences, Curry is proving that luck will have nothing to do with his legacy.