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I have always likened Stephen Curry to Steve Nash, not directly in playing style despite the obvious similarities in flair and arrogance, but the way everyone around them just seems to beam when pushed with even a slight nudge to speak about their captain. And now, with one MVP, a championship trophy, and the beginning of his dominance in its peak form, Curry has seemed to surpass what everyone thought he would finally become. Just a day ago, Nash, now a part-time consultant for the team that drafted his prototypical successor, stood in front of his home crowd and talked as his fans, teammates, and friends roared on in a tidal wave of joy. And I can't stop thinking about that moment coming for Stephen Curry, what is and will become everything for these Golden State Warriors.
On Saturday night, the entire world — or well, all Warriors fans — saw what has finally arrived for Stephen Curry. He has always had the confidence, the cockiness on the court to deflate and embarrass defenders. Now he has the hardware to back it up, he skill-set and team to push the boundaries of dominance, and the audience that fully recognizes what has been there since the beginning of last season: a full-fledged dominant superstars the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and anyone you'd like to compare him to.
The highlights, the vines, the GIFs, they're viral two seconds after the ball travels 33 feet through the air and drops through the net. There isn't a second in a Warriors game you can miss without feeling like the guy in the room with your friends that's missing out on the inside joke about that one time in college with that one bender. Curry is transcendent to the point where we as a fanbase, as humans watching the simple game of basketball, don't care about the noise surrounding him, only about the chaotic beauty he's creating with every triple dribble crossover, no-look overhead swing pass, and step-back 30-footer.
Like Nash, Curry sees plays before they even start to formulate, before the fans even notice despite having the entire floor in their vision. Curry forces you to watch the rest of screen while juggling the dizzying ability to keep your eyes on his handle and release at all times. There's no one in the world like Stephen Curry right now. We're not talking "Stephen Curry on a hot streak" like a couple years ago. We expect those incendiary minutes of gloriousness now, except they're perched on top of a lesser type of greatness, ordinary spectacular spoiled amongst his followers at this point. Stephen Curry's normal is the elite of basketball. Stephen Curry's greatness is the pinnacle of basketball.
So I spend all day thinking of analogies, comparisons and a way to find a certain aspect with which to describe Curry's "breakout" (how can one even term it that when he's seemingly done it again and again?) but the unprecedented feeling of all of this makes it impossible to uncover and grasp.
I said the other day that all Golden State Warriors game are rather boring and inconsequential until they make the postseason or play a contender like the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, or San Antonio Spurs. I was and am sorely mistaken. Every Warriors game is a treat in itself because Stephen Curry is taking each team, each player, and each play as serious as Game 6 of the NBA Finals. And the rest of the world, including his teammates, are finding out the same way we are: mouth open, petrified, and unable to do anything about it. Strap up, ladies and gentlemen. Stephen Curry's been arrived. He's just getting to his peakest form now though. And it doesn't get any better.