It’s not often that an opportunity comes along to say something about Stephen Curry’s brilliant basketball career that hasn’t been said before. Here’s one: After four NBA championships, two MVPs, including one courtesy of the only unanimous vote in history, two scoring titles, 10 All-Star games,10 All-NBA selections and a Finals MVP, the greatest shooter the planet has ever seen is, finally, an Olympic gold medalist.
It was the only box that Curry had yet to check, and it lands him in the esteemed company of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players in history to have won an NBA title, NBA MVP, Finals MVP and an Olympic gold medal.
And it wasn’t the formality many expected it would be when the Americans came to Paris with a team so loaded it was difficult to envision anyone giving them a game.
Serbia gave them a lot more than a game in the semifinal. Serbia did everything but send the Americans home with their tails between their legs before France pushed them to the limit in the gold medal game on Saturday. Both times, Curry was the savior.
Kudos to LeBron, who was rightfully named MVP for his comprehensive body of work over the course of the entire tournament, and to Durant, who was typically sensational in winning his U.S. men’s basketball record fourth gold medal, but this is real simple: If Curry doesn’t pour in 60 points on 17 3-pointers in the final two games, Team USA is not going home golden.
Given the stage and stakes, it was possibly the greatest two-game run of Curry’s career, and though the annals run deeper than perhaps anyone reading this has been around for, it’s pretty hard to imagine two more electric performances in the 88 years that basketball has been a medal event at the Olympics.
Electric is the key word there. The actual feat of scoring 60 points over 63 minutes of world-class basketball with a gold medal hanging in the balance is incredible no matter how do it, but what has made Curry maybe the most uniquely exhilarating basketball player we’ve ever seen are the pyrotechnics of his production.
The guys doesn’t just get hot; he burns buildings, cities, countries go the ground. The best part about his run of four 3-pointers over a two-minute stretch against France was watching the reactions of the the rest of the players. The people in the stands. Hands on their head, smiles ear to ear. Some of the greatest athletes in the world can only shake their head at some of the things this guy does with a basketball.
I mean seriously, this shot went in.
The last shot he hit to cap this two-minute flurry was fall-out-of-your-seat comical.
Keep in mind, there were still six seconds on the shot clock when Curry cut that last one loose. Watch it again. Look how wide open Durant and LeBron are. For starters, it tells you everything you need to know about how lethal Curry is, and how hot he was, that defenses are leaving two of the greatest players ever unattended so they can double team him, but more than that, try to name one other player in history who could take that shot, in that situation, with those two guys standing that open, and have it be acceptable.
For Curry, these shots aren’t just acceptable; they’re actually encouraged. Everyone watching that game would’ve been mad if he didn’t take that shot. It was just such a fitting way for Curry to get his first gold medal, by taking control of not just a game, but of an arena, of an entire basketball world, and leaving it speechless. Because really, what more is there to say about this guy that hasn’t already been said?
