Steph Curry ruined the game of basketball. Just ask him — because Curry has embraced the Ruin The Game charge — or ask any 4th grade basketball coach in the country. But the thing is it’s not like before Steph Curry young players weren’t jacking up shots from distance.
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Just get in your time machine and go back to any gym over the last half century and grade-schoolers will be counting down “3-2-1…” and heaving up shots from just inside half court. The difference is before they were Hail Mary’s that needed a Lorenzo Charles ending — now young kids think they can make those shots.
And who’s to say they can’t? (Besides the beleaguered 4th grade coaches.) Curry believed, and now he can make them. There’s no Michael Jordan AIR if there’s no Doctor J flying — that’s how it goes. The game evolves. Ruination is another term for creative destruction. Or what they call in Silicon Valley disruption.
[Disrupted in Silicon Valley]
Curry teammate Kevin Durant addressed the issue in the past, the quote below coming after former Warriors coach turned announcer Mark Jackson complimented Curry by saying he “ruined the game.” Ruined or disrupted or evolved is merely a synonym for changed, and it takes a while for people to start playing the ruined/changed/disrupted game. But they do. They play it. Damian Lillard hit a 35-footer the other night, easy as pie.
Here’s Durant: “When Mark Jackson say [Curry] was ruining the game, I know a lot of people took that personal, but I got it a little bit. He’s the only person who can shoot those shots like that in rhythm and make ’em and now everyone else think they can. And they can’t. Once in a generational talent.” And here comes the next generation. Things change — so what? Players and fans adapt.
