Stephen Curry: Transcending the Game of Basketball

The Golden State Warriors have become one of the best teams in NBA history, but it is Stephen Curry, who is helping them transcend the game.

The Golden State Warriors’ starting point guard, Stephen Curry, is a pretty normal guy. He eats and sleeps just like everyone else. He goes shopping just like everyone else. He even enjoys taking in a baseball game or two just like most regular people do.

Stephen is well on his way to a second straight MVP award, and this season there is almost no debate that Curry is most deserving. His Player Efficiency Rating of 31.5 this season ranks as the 8th most efficient season in NBA and ABA history behind only Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.

Curry upped his scoring average by over six points per game, the highest jump in scoring by a reigning MVP.  And despite all of these gaudy stats, he did it all in 34 minutes per game and sat out 19 fourth quarters entirely, equivalent to nearly five games.

The voice of the Golden State Warriors, Tim Roye, was on KNBR’s morning show to talk with Patrick Connor about how Curry is changing the game.

“He is destroying what we think is normal. He is rewriting everything about a basketball offense with the three point shot and he’s just transforming the game. He’s changing the way we think about the game,” Roye said, “Who would have ever thought we’d see a player warm up before the game shooting from the half court logo. And not flinging it, not throwing it up there but shooting from the half court logo.”

There is a saying in sports when an athlete performs so well that it can’t be equated to reality. That is called putting up “video game-like numbers.” While most of Curry stats, aside from three pointers made, aren’t that foreign, it is the way that he plays that really makes him the transcendent player that he is.

In an article written by Ben Sin on Forbes.com, game developers from the popular basketball video game, NBA 2K, claim that they can’t figure out how to mimic what he does in reality.

"“Curry is hitting, in real life, absurdly long-range three point bombs with regularity. He’s chucking these shots while moving, spinning and jabbing all over the place, often with a defender or two in his face. And these shots have gone in at such a high rate, even the video game version of Curry cannot keep up.So if you’re a basketball game developer, what do you do? You spend years developing a system that rewards good shot selections and punish players for taking ill-advised long range shots, but the real-life Steph is taking and making these supposedly terrible shots. If Wang and his team allow digital Steph to do these moves (meaning, take 25-foot bombs off the dribble) in the game without check, then that would just open the door for cheese again.So yeah, Steph has the 2K guys somewhat stumped for now.”"

The fact that the virtual version of Stephen Curry, comprised entirely of a collection of digital off and on codes, cannot do the things that the real-life, in-the-flesh, maybe-he-isn’t-human Steph Curry can do is just unfathomable.

But that’s the thing. When Steph steps on the court, the things he does sometimes just can’t be believed. Size-up dribble, drive to the basket, stop on a dime, behind the back drible, step-back 25 footer— Swish!

And it cannot be stopped.

But one of the things that makes Steph so captivating is the size at which he’s doing it at. We idolized Wilt because he was tall and scored like we will likely never see again, and people found that entertaining. We idolized Magic Johnson because he was a 6 foot 9 inch point guard who could run a team and put on a show like no one that had come before him. We idolized Jordan because he could take over any game with his athletic dunks and late game clutch shots. We idolize LeBron because he plays above the rim, and is elite in nearly every facet of the game.

The one thing that all of those guys have in common is size. They were all big, standing at over 6 feet 6 inches. Every one of them. But Curry? He’s barely 6 foot 3 inches.

Curry gives young fans a feeling that no one has been able to bring before, at least not to this level, and that is normalcy. We see Curry’s dazzling dribble moves. We see half court shots that strike nothing but the twine of the net. We see his fearlessness when he drives to the basket, surrounded by giants nearly a foot taller than he. We see that and for a brief moment we think “hey maybe I could do that.”

What he does on the court isn’t out of our imaginations in itself. Most of us can dribble a ball, most of us can shoot a three pointer (most of us don’t always make it), and most of us can make a lay-up. It’s the level at which he does it at that makes him so great. He makes the impossible shots, and he does it almost every night.

Next: Warriors Make NBA History

But despite his size, and despite the difficulty of his shots, the ball always finds it’s way in. Steph gives people a measuring stick. He shows that you don’t have to be freakishly tall to dominate the game. You don’t have to throw down thunderous dunks or send lay-ups off the glass with authority.

He gives us all a glimmer of hope that we can, or could have, done the things he is doing.

But when he fakes a cut back door, receives the pass, pump fakes, takes one dribble to his right and hits a step-back three over the Defensive Player of the Year; all of our hopes come crashing down.