Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are on the precipice of winning their fourth NBA title in the last seven years.
As a result, many are starting to claim that the gap between Curry’s career and that of Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is narrowing, with some even saying that Curry’s legacy is “right there” with James’.
“LeBron James would laugh at the concept that they’re being compared like this,” said Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
However, from a pure numbers and accolades perspective, one can objectively see that the point guard’s career doesn’t come close to that of James.
Yes, Curry winning his fourth title would tie him with James in that regard, but he would still have at most one NBA Finals MVP to James’ four and two regular season MVPs to James’ four.
James also trumps him in nearly every statistical category. For his career, the four-time MVP averages 27.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. In the playoffs, James takes it to a whole new level with career averages of 28.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.7 steals and .9 blocks per game.
In other words, James has Curry beat in every major statistic in the playoffs and only loses by a slim margin to Curry’s regular season steals average of 1.7 per game.
In addition, many argue that Curry has never been the best player on his team in any of his championship runs, and there are also those who say the Warriors lucked out due to injuries. In 2015, James lost Kevin Love and then Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals while he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Then, after a 73-9 season in which the Warriors lost to the Cavs in the 2016 NBA Finals in a highly competitive seven-game series, Kevin Durant suited up and joined the greatest regular season team in league history. That led to an impossibly stacked team, who nearly lost to the Houston Rockets in the 2018 playoffs, but again lucked out due to a Chris Paul injury after being down 3-2 in the series.
James meanwhile had to go through gauntlets to obtain his championships. He had to overcome a 3-2 hole in 2012 against the Boston Celtics and put on one of the greatest performances of his career with 45 points in an otherworldly Game 6. He had to go to two Game 7s in 2013, one against the Indiana Pacers and again against the San Antonio Spurs.
Then in 2016, facing a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors, James dropped back-to-back 41-point games and then a triple-double to help the Cavs become the only team to ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the final round. Lastly, his 2020 championship was nearly deterred due to a global pandemic, teammates like Avery Bradley opting out of the NBA bubble and nationwide protests threatening to postpone the entire season.
One can easily look back at the several Herculean performances that James has put up in the NBA Finals or the big shots that he has hit time and time again (think Game 7 of 2013 NBA Finals to put his Miami Heat up 83-79). But what Curry performance in the NBA Finals do you remember that became an instant classic?
The comparisons between James and Curry are likely just media fodder for now and likely won’t be entertained in serious discussions of the greatest of all time when all is said and done.
