Stephen Curry at Davidson was better than Lonzo Ball at UCLA

Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ two-time MVP, is and always has been better than Lonzo Ball, despite Lonzo’s dad’s best efforts.

Comparing a 19 year old college freshman to a two-time NBA MVP is asinine. Lonzo Ball’s father, LaVar, has been making headlines with his comments about his son and Stephen Curry. He, originally, told TMZ that Lonzo would be better than Curry down the road, but now he’s saying that he currently is the superior player.

He suggested that trading the two guards would yield some different results. Ball said “put Steph Curry on UCLA’s team right now and put my boy on Golden State and see what happens.” I can put together a pretty good guess as to what would happen.

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The Golden State Warriors would continue to be elite. Ball is very good and, even better, he’d be joining a team with Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. The sure-fire lottery pick would fit in nicely with the team.

If you put 2017 Curry on the UCLA men’s basketball team, the Bruins would cruise to a national championship. He’s the best player on the best basketball team in the world in the most difficult league. He’s led a team to an NBA championship, 73 single-season wins, and he looks poised to make another title run.

Curry destroys NBA defenses. Grown men are not prepared for him and he makes defenses scramble like no one else in history has. Why should we expect 18 and 19 year olds to consistently be able to stop him?

Now, if LaVar Ball wants to make it more interesting, he could have compared their college careers. But he didn’t and I think it’s pretty clear why: Steph Curry in college was better than Lonzo Ball is right now. It’s just a fact.

Ball is having a really good season. He’s averaging 15 points per game while adding 6 rebounds and a little over 7 assists per game. But he’s not dominating the way Curry did.

Curry’s lowest scoring average was 21.5 points as a rookie. He holds the record for most three-pointers in a single season, knocking down 162 treys. Where Curry truly excelled was in the NCAA Tournament.

The small point guard took Davidson College to the Elite Eight. They were a basket away from upsetting the eventual-champion Kansas Jayhawks and advancing to the Final Four. He was absolutely spectacular.

Curry averaged 32 points per game during the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Davidson wasn’t supposed to be there, let alone thriving off the shot of a former NBA player’s undersized son. And yet, they were.

Somehow, Curry led a small school in North Carolina to the Big Dance. Somehow, as a 10th seed, they beat the 7th seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs. Then they upset the 2 seed Georgetown Hoyas. Then they absolutely blew out the 3 seed Wisconsin Badgers.

The Wildcats were down two with the ball. Curry, who had 25 points and the record for most three-pointers in an NCAA season, passed the ball up to a teammate. He couldn’t knock down the deep three and the Jayhawks advanced and, eventually, won the whole thing.

Steph Curry dominated the NCAA and, more specifically, the tournament in a unique manner. While Ball has been good in his comfortable situation, he didn’t elevate the way Curry did. Ball’s college career high, thus far, is just 25 points–Curry was scoring that in individual halves in the tourney.

LaVar Ball needs to slow his roll. His son is very talented and he’s going to make an NBA team better. It’s also incredibly irresponsible to be calling out the top dogs in the league like that.

I understand wanting to support your son as a father. I also understand trying to improve his stock in the draft. It doesn’t make sense to add the unnecessary pressure of needing to live up to that hype.

All-Star John Wall told TMZ that LaVar’s words and actions are going to close players off to Lonzo and make them try to attack him on the court. His arrogance could very well be a turn-off to GMs, coaches, and teammates.

Instead of worrying which NBA great Lonzo will be better than, LaVar Ball should consider coaching his younger sons to actually play defense. While cherry picking makes for some nice Twitter trends and gets hits on YouTube, NBA teams (sans Vivek Ranadivé’s ideal Kings) don’t really want that.

Next: Top 20 Draft Picks in Franchise History

Lonzo Ball is really good. He could be great. But to casually and confidently say that he’s already better than one of the best point guards ever and a two-time MVP is foolish. LaVar Ball is wrong and he needs to stop spewing such nonsense. This piece shouldn’t have even been necessary to write, but here we are.

How can his son be better than 2017 Steph Curry when he’s not even better than Steph Curry was in college?

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Davidson Steph Curry was better than UCLA Lonzo Ball

By Carlos Murillo | Feb 20, 2017

Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors’ two-time MVP, is and always has been better than Lonzo Ball, despite Lonzo’s dad’s best efforts.

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