Steph Curry doesn’t have to deal with the hand-checking that Michael Jordan withstood in the brutal 1990s NBA. That’s just one of the claims made by those who can’t see their way clear to putting Steph in the Jordan category. (Other potential problems: Steph can’t fly, keeps tongue in mouth, just 6’2″, went to Davidson.) Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who played with MJ and coaches Curry, doesn’t have any of these categorization problems: he puts both Jordan and Curry in a category called “transcendent“ and lets history argue.
Everybody has a plan to stop Curry — it’s the same plan teams have always endorsed for stopping great players at any position, in any era. Limit his catches, put him in uncomfortable spots, make him work hard on defense, body him up, push him out further. (Good luck with that last one, especially.) That’s been the game plan against every Hall of Famer since Naismith put up the peach basket. But it’s chicken soup when you need penicillin. This quote from Charlotte Hornets forward and 11-year NBA veteran Marvin Williams explains perfectly the futility of the plans and Steph Curry’s current dominance:
Marvin Williams: “Last time I checked, if a dude is getting 30 a night, nobody has figured out a way to stop him. If you’re a great player, you’re a great player. I don’t care what era it is … nobody is going to stop you.”
