Steph Curry changed Warriors, Bay Area and basketball with unmatched greatness
Steph changed the Bay Area, Warriors and the game of basketball originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO -- The search for new superlatives to describe Stephen Curry’s influence on the Warriors franchise and on the global game of basketball remains futile. The old ones suffice because, well, originals generally are best.
So, Steve Kerr, who has coached Curry for nine years, no longer makes the effort. He sticks with the usuals -- brilliant, exceptional, spectacular, fantastic, superstar etc. -- in the hope they can be recycled and buffed to a shine.
Kerr does, however, offer a story that illustrates.
“I think I may have told you this story,” Kerr said Monday when I asked him, for the 393rd time, to articulate Curry’s impact. "But when I have dinner with (legendary Spurs coach) Gregg Popovich, literally every dinner, when we sit down the wine is poured, he says, ‘Here's to Tim Duncan.’ And his point is without Tim, none of that happens.
“And that's how I feel about Steph.”
The latest chapter in the book of Steph was written Sunday in Sacramento. In Game 7 of the Warriors-Kings first-round playoff series, Curry commanded the action, dictated the tempo, spread himself all over the proceedings and towed even the most burdensome teammates to one of the most memorable victories they will experience in their NBA careers.
Curry, meanwhile, became the first person in the 76-year history of the NBA to score 50 points in a Game 7.
That performance launched the latest scramble for new superlatives.
Is Curry the greatest Warrior ever? Yes. Already was. Is he a top-10 player in NBA history. Yes, and even the most recalcitrant naysayers concede it’s debatable. And then Melissa Lockard of The Athletic took to Twitter to revisit a question asked often in recent years: Is he the greatest Bay Area athlete of all time?
If the definition is, as Merriam-Webster says, “Markedly superior in character or quality ... noble,” the answer is yes. Better than Joe Montana or Barry Bonds or Rickey Henderson or Jerry Rice or any other legend to exhibit transcendent skill and production while representing a Bay Area professional team.
The answer is yes, again, because Curry goes beyond such narrow confines. The 35-year-old alone was able to push forlorn franchise to the top of the global sports mountain. The Warriors, with Curry as the face of the franchise, have gone from NBA backwater to worldwide phenomenon.
“We can all sit here and thank Steph for this era,” Kerr said. “Everybody's played a part in it. It's been a great collaboration with ownership and management and different coaches and different teammates and obviously there's Hall of Fame guys are in Draymond (Green), Klay (Thompson), Andre (Iguodala). It's really an impressive sort of collection of people and talent.
“But it's Steph. When it comes down to it, if you remove Steph from the equation, I'm not coaching here for a decade. I would have been fired a long time ago -- if I even would have gotten the job in the first place.”
Or taken the job.
Kerr had an inkling he was inheriting greatness. Mark Jackson, the coach who preceded Kerr, described the Curry-Thompson guard duo as the “greatest shooting backcourt in the history of the game.” He was right.
Jackson also described Curry as someone who “ruined” the game, meaning his exploits have become the goal to which others aspire, even though Curry’s innate gifts make it something of a foolish pursuit.
A more appropriate word, of course, is “changed.” The game. The Warriors. And the way we think about them.
There was a time when Bay Area sidewalks and stores weren’t cluttered with folks wearing Warriors caps and hoodies and T-shirts. A time when Golden State would go year after year after year without anyone worthy of appearing the NBA All-Star Game. A time visiting teams arrived in the Bay Area presuming victory.
A time when simply making the playoffs was cause for wild celebration.
Now? Expectation has been raised to insane levels, with anything less than reaching the NBA Finals is a disappointment or worse. And now the Bay, as Kevin Durant proved in 2016, is a destination on the NBA map.
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“Every superstar has this type of impact on his -- and when I say superstar, I'm talking the very best of the very best -- (area),” Kerr said. “The Michael Jordan impact on Chicago. Tim Duncan impact on San Antonio. Bill Russell impact on Boston.
“The impact goes so far beyond just the wins and the losses. It's what it does for the brand itself, what it does for the city and, and the joy and, and the interest.”
Kerr paused for the briefest of moments to summarize the broad impact of Steph, in the Bay and beyond.
“Think how many kids have been born over the last 15 years in the Bay Area who whose first basketball moment was watching Steph Curry make a 35-footer and immediately fell in love with the Warriors,” he said. “How long does that last? A lifetime, usually, because your team when you're five is usually your team when you’re 55.
“Steph is behind all of that. I don't know how to quantify that. I just know we're all incredibly lucky to be part of it.”
Curry is a generational talent, an example of genuine humanity and, while imperfect as the rest of us, will continue to attract superlatives. They’ll keep coming, too, because there’s no sign he’s ready to stop being worthy.
