Steve Nash says that Stephen Curry is not only an all-time great player, but also the “evolution of basketball.”
Nash hopes people fully appreciate Curry’s greatness while he’s still hooping.
It's time to recognize the walking piece of history that is Stephen Curry: https://t.co/tXY3Xx4Psm
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) October 31, 2018
Scottie Pippen also gives Steph props for sacrificing some of his game to incorporate teammate Kevin Durant.
Per ESPN:
“I hate to break it to you, but he’s already an all-time great,” two-time MVP Steve Nash said. “He’s the ultimate one-off. He’s the evolution of basketball. It evolved before our eyes.”
Curry is immensely popular, especially among young fans, but he doesn’t enjoy the respect someone of his stature should demand. There have been many examples, but to take one, there was the pushback to him being the first-ever unanimous MVP in 2016.
“There’s layers to his place in the Zeitgeist,” Nash said. “People don’t associate him to greatness because he doesn’t dominate the game physically. He dances. He pays a tax for that. He pays a tax for his great teammates.”
It wasn’t just that he went to the Hamptons to offer Kevin Durant a front-row seat on the Warriors’ roller-coaster ride into a dynasty. It’s that he has more than kept his word, yielding and bending to make room. That act and the ability to continue to excel while doing so are every bit as important to Curry’s status as all those 30-footers. In some ways, that’s just as historic.
“His willingness to sacrifice for KD is one of the great stories in history,” six-time champion Scottie Pippen said. “If you have a mind for the game, you know that it takes sacrifice to be great. All the greats have to sacrifice something. Otherwise you can’t win.
“When the ball hit [Michael] Jordan’s hands, it was to go and score. He won scoring the ball. For me, that meant I didn’t get to shoot as much. But I don’t think that knocked my greatness back. For Steph, he’s given up a seat for KD. But it doesn’t make him any less great. He should be looked at as one of the greatest guards the game has ever seen.”
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