What still echoes in my mind are the breathtaking words of praise uttered by a Hall of Famer a few years ago when he was selected for an NBA award.
“I've seen a lot of great players in the NBA, but I've never seen anyone who can shoot like that. He's unbelievable. The best thing about this player is that he doesn't look that much like him. Maybe not, but he's not afraid. He's confident in everything, and he should be.”
These are the legends, the logos, and the words I recalled from a casual conversation with Jerry West, who was the Warriors' managing director and front office advisor in 2016.
West was talking about Stephen Curry, who was in the middle of the season and won his first NBA Most Valuable Player award.
In the eight years since then, Curry has won more awards, most recently being named the league's Clutch Player of the Year on Thursday.
Curry beat out fellow finalists DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The award, created last season, is named after West, who currently plays a similar role with the Los Angeles Clippers as he did with the Warriors. He was known as “Mr.” Clutch” starred during his 14-year NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He retired in his 1974 year.
That description also applies to Curry, who played for the Warriors this season.
The Warriors led the NBA with 48 “clutch” games (five points or less within the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime), and Curry was the undisputed ace. The team went 23-20 in games he was in the lineup and 1-4 without him.
To further point out, Curry led the league in clutch points with 189, field goals with 59 and 3-point shots with 32. He finished the season with a clutch field goal percentage of 49.6 percent (including 45.7 percent from beyond the arc) and 95.1 percent. He retired after 43 games.
For comparison, Gilgeous-Alexander's shooting splits in 34 games were 58.1/35.7/89.7 and DeRozan's splits were 48.7/46.7/87.8.
Curry's 1.32 points per minute in the clutch was far fewer than the rest of the players on the field. DeRozan finished with .949 points per clutch minute and Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 1.04 points per minute.
The impressive resume that Curry submitted with the award may not be enough to once and for all silence those who struggle with the facts that tell him he is a reliable clutch performer.
This might work. Over the past 10 years, Curry's 10 game-winning shots (taken in the fourth quarter or within five seconds of the overtime buzzer) lead the NBA.
Or maybe it's the video of Curry's winning game against the Phoenix Suns on Feb. 10 at Chase Center. The ball spun just out of reach and he fired a three-ball jumper past the outstretched arm of Devin Booker. ABC/ESPN announcer Mike Breen emphatically said, “Bang!”
Or check out the box score from Golden State's 132-126 overtime win over the Boston Celtics on Dec. 19. Curry scored 20 points in the final 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, including 4 of 5 from deep, and scored in OT. Return.
Voters don't always get it right. Wednesday's announcement that Minnesota Timberwolves forward Naz Reid beat Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk in NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting is typical of voters getting it wrong. That was a great example.
The Timberwolves had a much better season than the Kings, but there's no world in which Minnesota would miss Reed as much as Sacramento would miss Monk.
The next day, voters were correct in Curry's case. Jerry West would agree.
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