An athlete so good, even the 2K video game developers could not figure out how to properly virtualize him. Yet still, Stephen Curry and his first place Golden State Warriors find themselves to be the subject of criticism from past NBA players and legends.
According to ESPN, NBA legend Oscar Robertson said, “I just don’t think coaches today in basketball understand the game of basketball. They don’t know anything about defenses. They don’t know what people are doing on the court. [Curry] has shot well because of what’s going on in basketball today.”
Robertson continued to criticize current NBA defenses as he later added, “I look at games today, and they’ll start a defense at the foul line. When I played, they were picking you up when you got the ball inbounds.”
Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar agreed with these statements, according to ESPN. Robertson was not the only one who had a few words for Curry and the Warriors. Stephen Jackson, who played on the 2006-2007 Warriors squad that upset the number one seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs that year, said that his old Warriors team could beat this current team.
Cedric Ceballos who played for the 1993-1994 Phoenix Suns also chimed in to say that his former team could have beaten this year’s Warriors. He mentioned that his team would know how to contain Curry. “That’s one thing these teams don’t do: They do not expose Steph and the way he plays defense. I don’t think we would have a problem with this Golden State team,” Ceballos said.
At first, Curry tried to brush these comments off. Current Warriors center Andrew Bogut tweeted out that the Australian U-14 team could beat the Warriors in which Curry and Draymond Green, current Warriors forward, both playfully responded back.
However, Curry did address these comments. He told the Warriors Plus/Minus, “It’s starting to get a little annoying just because it’s kind of unwarranted from across the board.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr did not let his team, especially Curry, be criticized continuously. According to ESPN Kerr said, “A player from any era would be unable to guard Steph Curry. It doesn’t matter who you’re talking about. No one could guard Steph Curry. He’s too quick, too skilled, too good. You can make all sorts of other arguments. In the ‘90s, there were all types of dominant big men. There aren’t many these days, that’s true. The game was different then. There’s more ball movement, there’s more liked-sized players on the court. So things change, but I just can’t see how anybody would think that Steph would have been guardable 30 years ago, 20 years ago, whatever.”
As for Curry, he’s shown no signs of slowing down. He’s already tied his own record for most three’s in a game and has already broken his own record for most three’s in a season — this is all with 16 games left in the regular season. The Warriors as a team continue to roll. They sit atop the NBA with a 60-6 record and have already clinched a playoff spot, the fastest in NBA history.
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