GOAT Conversations: Steph Curry Has Entered The Chat

GOAT Conversations is a series of articles on all-time greats who, for one reason or another, are not mentioned frequently enough in debates about the greatest NBA player of all time.

Far too often, when Steph Curry is brought up in everyone’s favorite barbershop debate, it comes with a preface. “We need to start talking about him in the GOAT conversation…”

Maybe the time is long overdue, though. Curry should have been in this discussion for three years.

In the 2021–22 season, the Golden State Warriors superstar did two things that propelled him further away from most players in NBA history. On December 14, 2021, inside the hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden, Curry hit the 2,974th three-point shot of his career. By doing so, he surpassed Ray Allen and became the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers made.

Six months later, Curry was hitting the shimmy, doing the “night night” in Boston, and winning his fourth NBA championship. Right there and then, he had carved a legacy that belonged to no one else — the establishment of a Golden State dynasty that hinged on his greatness from beyond the arc.

Many basketball personalities have jokingly said that Curry “ruined” basketball by kicking the popularity of the three-point shot into overdrive. Whether or not this is genuinely detrimental to the sport, there’s no denying that the baby-faced assassin has been largely responsible for the revolution in NBA offenses over the past decade.

As for the rest of his résumé, Curry has a lot more hardware to flaunt. He is a two-time NBA MVP, becoming the first-ever unanimously voted MVP in 2016. Curry has garnered 11 All-NBA Team selections and 11 All-Star nods, and he finally won the elusive Finals MVP award in 2022.

Though they play different positions, Curry and LeBron James have been frequently compared to each other, primarily because they squared off in the NBA Finals four years in a row. James certainly has an edge in individual accomplishments, but when it comes to the ultimate prize that an NBA player can achieve, Curry and LBJ have won the same number of NBA rings as their respective teams’ cornerstones.

This is not to say that Curry has displaced James in GOAT talks. While the King is regarded by some experts as the closest challenger to Michael Jordan’s throne, the most prolific shooter in NBA history has done enough in his career to inhabit a spot in this royal debate. No ifs, buts, or maybes. Steph Curry has found his mark in the debate on the greatest of all time.