How GOOD is Steph Curry ACTUALLY?!

December 14th, 2021. Madison Square Garden. Steph Curry catches the ball on the right wing, 28 feet from the basket. He rises up. Splash. History for the first time this year. So Steph to tie it. There it is. I knew he would make his first win. He equals Ray Allen very quickly. Barely took a minute and stands on the doorstep of history right now. Curry lets it fly. Oh and 2,974 career three-pointers. The all-time record in 789 games. Ray Allen needed 1,300. But here's what nobody talks about. This moment almost never happened. Because just 10 years earlier, doctors were telling a 23-year-old Steph Curry that his ankles might end his career before it ever really began. So how did a player who couldn't even stay on the court become the greatest shooter in basketball history? How good is Stephen Curry actually? Stephen Curry wasn't supposed to make it to the NBA. Not because he lacked talent. Because he lacked size. 6 feet 2 inches. 185 pounds. Son of NBA sharpshooter Del Curry. He could shoot the lights out at Davidson College. Led them to the Elite Eight as a sophomore. Averaged 28.6 points as a junior. But no major programs offered him a scholarship coming out of high school. Too small. Too skinny. Not athletic enough. Davidson, a tiny school with less than 2,000 students, took a chance. And Curry left college as one of the greatest scorers in NCAA history. 2,635 points. 414 career three-pointers. The Golden State Warrior selected him 7th overall in the 2009 NBA Draft. Right behind guys like Hashim Thabit and Johnny Flynn. Players you've probably never heard of. Curry won Rookie of the Year. Averaged 17.5 points. Showed flashes of brilliance. But nobody knew what was coming next. Nobody except maybe the doctors who'd soon be operating on his ankles. May 2011. Curry undergoes his first ankle surgery. Right ankle stabilization. The ligaments had been stretched out from constant rolling and twisting. He'd suffered multiple ankle sprains during his first two seasons. It was getting worse. The 2011-12 season was supposed to be his breakthrough. Instead, it became his nightmare. 26 games. That's all he played. Five separate ankle sprains. He'd catch the ball in transition, push off to accelerate, and his ankle would just flip underneath him. There were definitely some dark days, Curry would later admit. I wasn't even rolling my ankle landing on somebody. I was doing it when I'd catch it in transition. I'm pushing off, and that thing would flip. The Warriors were terrified. General Manager Bob Myers had never seen ankles behave this way. The young sharpshooter they'd drafted seventh overall might be done. April 25, 2012. Curry went under the knife again. Dr. Richard Ferkel opened up the ankle and found thick, sticky, inflamed scar tissue. Bone spurs. Chipped cartilage. It looked, in his words, like exotic seafood. But miraculously, there was no structural damage. Just debris and scar tissue. Ferkel cleaned it out. Curry's father Dell and agent Jeff Austin waited anxiously, not knowing if this would be a quick clean-up or a career-ending reconstruction. It was the clean-up. Four months recovery. But Curry's career was hanging by a thread. The Warriors offered him a contract extension. Four years. $44 million. Many saw it as a massive risk. An overpay for a guy who couldn't stay healthy. It would become the greatest bargain in NBA history. 2012-13 season. Curry returned healthy. And suddenly, everything changed. He played 78 games. Averaged 22.9 points. Made 272 three-pointers. The Warriors went 47-35 and made the playoffs for the first time in years. But the real breakthrough came the next season. 2013-14. Curry averaged 24 points and was named an All-Star for the first time. First team All-NBA. The Warriors hired a new head coach named Steve Kerr. And then came 2014-15. The year everything exploded. Curry averaged 23.8 points and led the Warriors to 67 wins. He moved without the ball better than anyone in NBA history. His shooting range extended to 30 feet. Defenses had never seen anything like it. The Warriors steamrolled through the playoffs. Beat LeBron's Cavaliers in six games in the finals. Curry won his first championship. His first MVP award. At 27 years old, the kid with the broken ankles was on top of the world. But he wasn't done. He was just getting started. 2015-16. The greatest regular season in NBA history. Stephen Curry became a force of nature. 30.1 points per game. 6.7 assists. 50.4% from the field. 45.4% from three. 90.8% from the free-throw line. He joined the exclusive 50-40-90 club while averaging over 30 points. Nobody had ever done that before. He made 402 three-pointers, shattering his own record by 116. There are seasons where entire teams don't make 402 threes. He led the league in scoring, steals, and free-throw percentage. The same season, the Warriors won 73 games, breaking the 1996 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 wins. Curry was named the first unanimous MVP in NBA history. All 131 first-place votes. He hit shots from 35 feet with defenders draped all over him. He made it look easy. He made it look fun. Game after game, he did things that seemed physically impossible. Shooting off the dribble. Shooting off balance. Shooting from the parking lot. The Warriors entered the playoffs as overwhelming favorites to repeat as champions. Up 3-1 in the finals against Cleveland. One win away. And then it all fell apart. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving went supernova. 41 points each in Game 5. Combined for 64 in Game 6. Game 7. Tied at 89 with under a minute left. Kyrie hits a three-pointer over Curry. 92-89 Cavaliers. Warriors ball. Curry gets the switch he wants. Kevin Love defending. He rises up for three. Miss. LeBron makes a free throw. Warriors down four with 10 seconds left. It's over. The Warriors became the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 lead in the finals. Three-win season meant nothing. No championship. Curry shot 6-of-19 in Game 7. He'd been dealing with a knee injury in the playoffs. But that wasn't an excuse. He'd come up short when it mattered most. It hurts, man, Curry said after the game. That's all I'm really marinating on right now. The criticism was brutal. Could Curry win without perfect circumstances? Was he a regular season player? The doubters were loud. But the Warriors had a plan. And it involved the second best player in the world. July 4, 2016. Kevin Durant signs with Golden State. The most talented team ever assembled. Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green. Unstoppable. 2016-17 season. The Warriors went 16-1 in the playoffs. Curry averaged 28.5 points in the postseason on 55% shooting and 47% from 3. Game 3 of the finals. Under a minute left. Tied game. Durant hits a 3-over LeBron. Warriors win. Warriors sweep. Championship No. 2. Durant won finals MVP. Not Curry. The whispers started. Was this Durant's team now? 2017-18. They did it again. Another championship. Durant with another finals MVP after dropping 43 points in game 3. Two more rings. But Curry's legacy remained complicated. He'd sacrificed shots. Sacrificed stats. Sacrificed finals MVPs. For the good of the team. The Warriors reached their fifth straight finals. But Kevin Durant tore his Achilles. Klay Thompson tore his ACL. The dynasty fell to the Toronto Raptors in six games. Durant left for Brooklyn. Klay would miss two full seasons. Curry played just five games in 2019-20 after breaking his hand. The Warriors went 15-50. The worst record in the NBA. The dynasty appeared to be over. But Curry wasn't done. Not even close. 2020-21 season. At age 32, Stephen Curry put on a show. 32 points per game. Led the entire NBA in scoring. Dragged a mediocre Warriors team to the play-in tournament almost single-handedly. In April 2021, he went nuclear. Averaged 37.3 points for the month on 51.8% shooting. Made 96 three-pointers in a single month. An NBA record. He became the first player ever to average at least 35 points and shoot 50-45-90 in a calendar month. Game after game of 40, 50, even 60 points. Carrying the Warriors on his back. Reminding everyone why he's special. And then came December 14, 2021. Madison Square Garden. Warriors vs. Knicks. Ray Allen and Reggie Miller sat courtside. The two previous three-point kings. There to witness the coronation. Four minutes into the game, Curry tied Allen's record with his first three-pointer. 2,973. Less than three minutes later, he caught the ball on the right wing. 28 feet out. He rose up over Alec Burks. Splash. 2,974. The all-time leader. The building erupted. The game stopped. Curry hugged his parents. He hugged Ray Allen at midcourt. Tears flowed. He'd done it in 789 games. Allen took 1,300. The record wasn't close. And it never would be again. I'm comfortable saying it now, Curry said when asked if he's the greatest shooter ever. For years, he deflected the question. But with the record in hand, there was no debate. The greatest shooter in basketball history. Officially. 2022 NBA Finals. Warriors vs. Celtics. Boston had the best defense in the league. Many picked them to win. Game 1, Curry drops 34 points. Game 4, 43 points. 10 rebounds. Signature performance. Game 6, 34 points. 7 rebounds. 7 assists. Warriors win 103-90, championship number 4. And this time, Curry won finals MVP. Unanimously. Averaging 31.2 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists for the series. The one trophy that had eluded him. The one piece of his resume that critics pointed to. Gone. At 34 years old, he'd completed his legacy. 4 championships. 2 MVPs. 1 finals MVP. The all-time 3-point king. But that summer, there was still one more mountain to climb. August 2024. Paris Olympics. Team USA vs. France in the gold medal game. LeBron James. Kevin Durant. Stephen Curry. The dream team. The game came down to the final minutes. Tied. France pushing. The pressure immense. And then, Curry took over. 4 consecutive 3-pointers in the final 3 minutes. Including a fadeaway double-contested dagger that sent the crowd into hysteria. The golden dagger. One of the greatest moments in Olympic basketball history. Team USA wins gold. Curry led the tournament in scoring. Set an Olympic record for most 3-pointers in a final. At 36 years old, he'd won everything. His first Olympic gold medal. The final accomplishment on an impossible checklist. So, how good is Stephen Curry actually? He's a 4-time NBA champion. A 2-time league MVP. A member of our 75th anniversary team. And for the first time ever, he's an NBA finals MVP. The 2022 Bill Russell NBA finals MVP award goes to Stephen Curry. 4 NBA championships. 2 MVPs. Including the only unanimous MVP in history. Finals MVP. Olympic gold medal. All-time leader in 3-pointers. Made with over 4,000 and counting. 900 more than the next closest player. Led the league in 3-pointers. Made 8 different times. Made 402 3s in a single season. A record that might never be broken. Career averages. 24.8 points. 6.4 assists. 4.7 rebounds on 47% shooting. And 43% from 3. But the numbers don't tell the whole story. Stephen Curry changed basketball. Permanently. Teams now shoot 43s a game. That didn't happen before Curry. Kids practice from 30 feet now. That didn't happen before Curry. He proved that you don't need to be 6 feet 8 inches and 250 pounds to dominate the NBA. He proved that shooting could be a superpower. He turned the 3-pointer from a role player's weapon into a nuclear option. From the kid who couldn't get a scholarship. To the player who couldn't stay healthy. To the unanimous MVP. To the 3-point king. To the 4-time champion. Stephen Curry didn't just become great. He redefined what great means. Pure. Revolutionary. Unstoppable. 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