As the Golden State Warriors seek out another unlikely run at a championship, the team will yet again need to rely heavily on their superstar Stephen Curry in order to give them any shot at a deep playoff run.
Yet, as Curry's career likely comes to a close in the near future, a fifth championship with the same franchise could put him in even loftier historical company, and, according to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo! Sports, it could even mean that we would be forced to have an uncomfortable conversation regarding his stance relative to all-time great Lebron James.
Throughout their careers, Curry and James have battled relentlessly, with the Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers facing off in the NBA Finals four years in a row from 2015-2018. Yet, now, as both near the twilight of their storied tenures in the NBA, there is only one thing left to compete for: one final ring.
One more ring for Curry could force an uncomfortable Lebron James conversation
On the recent episode of Good Word with Goodwill, Goodwill and guest Dan Titus discussed the Curry-Lebron rivalry as one of the defining dynamics of our generation, with Goodwill saying that "Five [championships] means something. In championships, five puts you with Tim Duncan. It puts you with Kobe Bryant. It puts you with Magic Johnson... If you get a fifth ring on Lebron's watch... we'd be having some conversations."
Over the past decade and a half, Lebron and Curry have routinely vied for the title of best player in the league, with James having won four separate titles as a member of the Cavaliers, the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Curry, meanwhile won three championships during Golden State's dominant run in the late 2010s and capped it off with one more long-shot run in 2022, defeating the Boston Celtics in six games.
Clearly, as far historical greatness goes, James is in a different echelon than Curry. The NBA's all-time leading scorer, James' pure longevity and offensive dominance sets a bar that Curry, with an unprecedented historical skill-set, could not match,
Yet, the debate over who has defined this era of basketball is a different one entirely.
The Warriors have an exceedingly tough task ahead of them this season in attempting to push through an absolutely loaded Western Conference. With juggernauts such as the Oklahoma City Thunder standing in the way of another ring, a championship for Golden State in 2025-26 would necessarily signify one of the most unlikely runs in NBA history.
Meanwhile, James and the Lakers will be attempting the same feat, albeit with a 26-year-old superstar in the wings in Luka Dončić.
Therefore, if Curry is able to pull off one more championship with a team that still entirely revolves around him, surpassing Lebron on the all-time leaderboard, this era could become known to be defined as the Curry and Lebron era.