night's loss: Stephen Curry is very
good at basketball and Sports
Illustrated is giving him the attention
he deserves on its regional cover this
week.
Cover image via SI.
I think we've gotten past the point
where we can say that Stephen
Curry doesn't get the attention he
deserves.
Curry's first appearance on a Sports
Illustrated cover certainly qualifies as
major national attention even for
those who just want to play the victim
because it feels so familiar as a
Golden State Warriors fan.
An excerpt from the SI release
promoting Chris Ballard's
article :
During the Warriors six-game first-
round victory over the Nuggets,
Ballard says that Curry "appeared
to be engaged in one very
long, extremely thorough
heat check." (Page 52)
Ballard writes that Curry is a different
breed who not only creates his own
space, "but he also thrives in
the absence of it." Along with
some nudging from his sharp shooting
father Dell and coach Mark Jackson,
Curry has adapted to defenders
playing him tight by shooting more
quickly and from more difficult angels.
This has led to Curry scoring 59.1% of
his buckets unassisted this season. For
comparison's sake, Kevin Durant,
another space creating shooter, was
assisted on over half of his shots.
Sure, there's that whole All-Star thing
from months ago, but I'll take him
shooting the Warriors to the second
round of the playoffs over a spot in
that glorified street ball game. And it
can definitely be a bit aggravating
when people act like the shooting
display he has put on in the 2013 NBA
Playoffs is stunning when it's really
just the extension, or maybe a climax,
of what he's proven to be capable of
when healthy consistently - he's been
throwing the ball in the basket all
season. This extended heat check has
certainly been ridiculous, as Jarrett
Jack is quoted as saying in Ballard's
article, but it's also not exactly some
random dude coming out of nowhere
when his team got desperate after
losing their first All-Star in forever in
the first game of the playoffs.
But this explosion of national attention
is also a good time to pause and note
what Tom Ziller of SB Nation pointed
out this morning: the Warriors
totally won the Stephen
Curry contract negotiations
by signing him under the max and
avoiding a messy restricted free
agency process.
The days of being a self-pitying
Warriors fan look to be coming to an
end, which is probably worthy of
celebration in its own right regardless
of however this playoff run ends.
Now let's just hope Curry's cover
appearance doesn't come with any
sort of curse.
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