NBA | Curry the best ever? Yo, take a chill pill ... a massive one

This isn’t some ode to the old-timers.

Or confirmation of the legitimacy of Oscar Robertson’s comments.

Or Phil Jackson’s comparison to Chris Jackson.

Nah, this is just a get-a-grip shout-out to the mind-numbed prisoners of the moment masses who have gone completely overboard with their hero worshipping rants and ravings about Steph Curry.

Guys, gals, experts, non-experts and anyone else with a memory span of, say, 20 minutes, yo, chill out.

The guy is a great player. He’s a worthy candidate to be pushed as the best player in the NBA currently. No doubt.
​
But the best of all time, as many, seriously, mind you, are suggesting, with this “greatest season ever” as the harbinger of things to come? Holy smokes, people, settle down.

Curry is a wonderful testament to doing things a different way, succeeding in a physical sport without being a physical specimen, ballhandling at higher level and shooting at the highest level. He’s having a marvelous season, far, far greater than the one he had last season that yielded his first most valuable player award.

That being said, he’s not the best ever, and neither does his 2015-16 season stand above all others in NBA lore.

Frankly, his effort last year was hardly worthy of receiving the league’s top individual honor. That should have gone to Russell Westbrook, hands down, after he put a rather modern-day Big-O spin on things with averaging 28.1 points, 8.6 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game.

But we digress … or maybe not.

Thing is, if anyone is going to make the case for Curry as the game’s best player, they have to show he is the single most dominant force of presence in the league. Night in. Night out. Game after game. Year after year.

Right now, that case cannot be made. Curry is a brilliantly efficient player due to his shot-making proficiency with the ability to electrify a crowd with moves that snap defenders’ ankles and 3-pointers that seem to rain from the heavens.

He may be the best now, but best ever, no way.

He doesn’t impose his will in the same way as Michael Jordan did. Or Kobe Bryant has. Or LeBron James. Or even Westbrook, who isn’t even considered a “contemporary” by most. All four of those guys could struggle with their shot and still dominate a game, no matter how big the stakes. Sorry, but that ain’t Curry.

The national dis on Westbrook with regard to this is odd, since it easily could be rationalized that his two most recent campaigns, last year and this year, are comparable, if not better, than what Curry has produced in the same span.

Take a peek ...

2014-15

• Curry: 23.8 ppg, 7.7 apg, 4.3 rpg, 2.0 spg, .487 FG, .914 FT
• Westbrook: 28.1 ppg, 8.6 apg, 7.3 rpg, 2.1 spg, .426 FG, .835 FT

​2015-16

• Curry: 30.7 ppg, 6.6 apg, 5.3 rpg, 2.1 spg, .515 FG, .908 FT
• Westbrook: 24.4 ppg, 10.2 apg, 7.5 rpg, 2.2 spt, .461 FG, .823 FT

There is no denying Curry’s merits as a shooter.

He may, indeed, be the best marksman the game has ever seen.

​But to look at those numbers and watch the two play, accepting the fact that Westbrook is a better defender, rebounder and disher, and come away with the notion that Curry is the greatest ever is ludicrous, especially when the same people doing so likely will, to hammer home their StephLove, scoff at Westbrook and claim he isn’t even the best player on his own team.

Look, Curry is great. He’s like Hall of Famer Pete Maravich with less trickery and a better stroke. He’s just not the greatest ever … and that’s OK, even if an old-timer or two may go a bit far in trying to emphasize that point.

​- Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

STOP THE INSANITY

With apologies to Knicks executive Phil Jackson and Chris Jackson, the former LSU gunner and favorite Tourette’s Syndrome-afflicted NBA player, there is no need to delve that far back into the history books to bring some comparative-induced sanity into the equation in regards to the Steph Curry crushes all hype. Let’s just go with a couple contemporaries, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

​CAREER AVERAGES

Curry
​
​22.1
​Points
6.9
​Assists
4.3
​Boards
.477
​FG
.901
​FT

James
​
​27.2
​Points
6.9
​Assists
7.1
​Boards
.496
​FG
.743
​FT

Bryant
​
​25.1
​Points
4.7
​Assists
5.3
​Boards
.448
​FG
.836
​FT

​SINGLE-SEASON HIGHS

Curry
30.7
​Points
8.5
​Assists
5.3
​Boards
.515
​FG
.934
​FT

James
​31.4
​Points
8.6
​Assists
8.0
​Boards
.567
​FG
.780
​FT

Bryant
​35.4
​Points
6.0
​Assists
6.9
​Boards
.469
​FG
.868
​FT

​CHAMPIONSHIP APPEARANCES

Curry
1

James
5

Bryant
6

​CHAMPIONSHIPS

Curry
1

James
2

Bryant
5

​NBA FINALS MVP

Curry
0

James
2

Bryant
2

​MVP AWARDS

Curry
1

James
4

Bryant
1

​ALL-NBA DEFENSE

Curry
0

James
6

Bryant
12