Top 50 NBA players from last 50 years: Stephen Curry ranks No. 10
Editor's Note: As part of a new series for his podcast, "What’s Wright with Nick Wright," FOX Sports commentator Nick Wright is ranking the 50 best NBA players of the last 50 years. The countdown continues today with player No. 10, Stephen Curry.
Stephen Curry's career highlights:
- 2022 Finals MVP
- Two-time league MVP
- Eight-time All-Star
- Four-time first-team All-NBA, three-time second team, one-time third team
- Two-time scoring champion
- 2016 50-40-90 club
- 2016 steals leader
- 2010 All-Rookie team
- First on all-time 3-point list
- Highest career free-throw percentage
In the 2022 playoffs, Stephen Curry got into the habit of blessing dagger shots with a sleeping motion. The self-proclaimed petty king called it the "night, night" celebration to signify a job well done.
Consider the whole NBA Finals a goodnight to any legitimate nitpicking of Curry’s legacy.
For all of Steph’s brilliance over the past decade-plus, two items were noticeably absent from his résumé: Finals MVP and a transcendent game in the title round. Both feats, in fact, had improbably eluded him throughout the dynasty he’s spearheaded.
It was fitting, then, that after nailing a corner 3 to ice Game 6 versus the Celtics, and then again a few days later at the Warriors’ championship parade, Curry turned to his novel taunt. His work was complete.
"He’s the greatest shooter ever. He’s one of the greatest teammates ever," Wright said. "And now, finally, his résumé has no blank marks. He’s checked off every box you would want to check as a player."
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Curry revolutionized the game of basketball with his unbelievable 3-point shooting.
And then some. He overcame ankle injuries early in his career, further pitting the Davidson product on the rarest of paths for an inner-core Hall of Famer. While Curry's shooting prowess was evident from day one, and never wavered, his 3-point approach was ahead of its time. He didn’t attempt more than five a game until his fourth season.
It was a campaign that ushered in a basketball revolution. Steph made 272 3-pointers, breaking Ray Allen’s all-time record for a season despite 53 fewer attempts. And after connecting at a higher clip (45.3%) than he made 2-point shots (44.9%), Curry never looked back. He has averaged 10 3-point attempts per game over the past 10 years — and he hasn’t been alone.
His 600 attempts in 2012-13 were the 10th-highest total in league history. That mark has since been topped 44 times.
Curry can't be minimized as just a shooter, of course. The slender 6-foot-3 point guard is a world-class dribbler whose contributions as a passer and rebounder can sometimes go unnoticed. With that said, more shooting from Curry also directly corresponded with more winning from the Warriors.
His record-breaking fourth season spurred Golden State to its first postseason berth in six years (and only its second in 20). He went for 30 points and 13 assists in his second career playoff game and 44 and 11 in his seventh. The young Warriors bowed out early in consecutive postseasons, leading to Steve Kerr taking over for Mark Jackson.
As Steph continued shooting and making 3s at alarming rates, and from just about anywhere inside half court, he would actually begin playing off the ball more. Amid his unprecedented gravity pull, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green blossomed, and Golden State, already boasting a top-ranking defense, evolved into the league’s best offense.
In the 2015 playoffs, Curry averaged 34 and 7 in a first-round sweep of the Pelicans. He rallied from a quiet few games against the Grizzlies with 32 and 10 in the clincher. He then averaged 31 and 6 in the conference finals versus the Rockets.
Steph was great but not transcendent against the Cavaliers in the Finals, posting a line of 26-5-6 with two steals. With the series tied at 2-2, he exploded for 37 points (and grabbed seven rebounds) while knocking down seven 3s. He went for 25-6-8 in Game 6 but was snubbed for Finals MVP. Andre Igoudala, who also scored 25 in the closeout contest, was credited for sparking the Warriors’ rally from a 2-1 deficit after being inserted into the starting lineup halfway through the series and playing lockdown defense while averaging 16-6-4.
"I believe LeBron [James] was MVP of those Finals," Wright said. "But it is criminal that in the official record books, Steph Curry got zero Finals MVP votes. If you weren’t going to vote for LeBron, not voting for Steph there is crazy, especially with how he finished it."
Curry responded with the most prolific shooting season of all time. He led the league in scoring (30 points on just 20 shots per game) and hit a record-breaking 402 3-pointers while making 50.4% from the floor, 45.4% from 3 and 90.8% from the line. None of the other 12 entries in the 50-40-90 club involve even half as many 3-pointers. Golden State won a record 73 games in the regular season and Curry won a second straight MVP – this time earning the first-ever unanimous vote.
"In 2016, he has as good of a regular season as any player has ever had," Wright said.
The playoffs were a different story. Curry suffered a knee injury in the opener and was limited through the first two rounds. With the Warriors trailing the Thunder 3-1 in the conference finals, Steph (and fellow "Splash Brother" Thompson) caught fire and ensured a rematch with the Cavs. Curry then fell cold again, including a 6-for-19 showing in Game 7, and committed 30 turnovers as the Warriors became the first team to blow a 3-1 lead in the Finals.
"Steph had the worst playoff game of his life in Game 7," Wright said. "That’s got to be part of the story."
The next chapter included Kevin Durant, whose unselfish style aligned perfectly with Curry’s. Both players were at their apex, spawning arguably the greatest team of all time. The Warriors blitzed through the 2017 playoffs with a record 16-1 mark and Curry had his best postseason yet (28-6-7). It just wasn’t better than that of Durant, who’d win the first of two straight Finals MVPs.
Golden State repeated as champs and looked prime for a three-peat until KD went down midway through the 2019 postseason. Curry went off in the immediate aftermath of the injury, leading the Warriors to a fifth consecutive Finals appearance, but was uneven in a six-game series loss to the Raptors.
And almost overnight, the dynasty appeared dead. Durant and Thompson both suffered injuries in the Finals that would sideline them for a year. Moreover, KD defected to Brooklyn in the summer, Curry broke his hand four games into the following season, and Golden State finished with the worst record in basketball. Though Steph returned to an MVP level in 2020, the Warriors (still without Thompson, who tore his Achilles while working his way back from the ACL) missed the playoffs again.
It all made this past season’s title run that much more improbable. Curry opened the season on fire before enduring the most prolonged shooting slump of his career. He also missed the final month of the regular season with a foot injury, just as Thompson was getting his legs underneath him. Steph made it back for the beginning of the postseason and was stellar through the first three rounds.
He then delivered the biggest series – and moment – of his career. With the Warriors trailing the Celtics 2-1, Curry erupted for 43 points and 10 rebounds on the road to tie things up. In Game 6, he dropped 34-7-7 to put Boston away. This time, there was no question of whom the Finals MVP was. Steph averaged 31-6-5 for the series and led all scorers in five of six games.
The exhibition finally quieted inaccurate narratives of Curry not being clutch or an elite playoff performer.
"I think folks that act like Steph has not been great in the playoffs are lying," Wright said.
The numbers, if not all the winning, back it up. Curry averages 24-5-7 with 47.3%/42.8%/90.8% shooting splits in the regular season and 27-5-6 while shooting 45.2%/40.1%/89.2% in the postseason.
Calling Curry the greatest shooter ever almost feels redundant at this point. It will be the first line on his eventual Hall of Fame plaque and in his obituary. That no one can contest the claim is an even tougher feat in the sports world. But stopping there would be terribly underselling the four-time champ's impact on winning.
His game has forever the changed the game of basketball, sure. But he's also reshaped the NBA's historical hierarchy. And at 34 years old, he looks far from finished.
"The architect and the heartbeat of the best dynasty since Jordan’s Bulls," Wright said. "This ring cements the Warriors, in my opinion, better than the Spurs … better than the Lakers with Shaq and Kobe."