CNN
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Down 2-1, with the Boston crowd howling and baying, Stephen Curry painted his Mona Lisa.
Like Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, it was comprised of soft strokes of the finest details and, in the end, was beautiful.
Curry’s legacy as one of the sport’s greats has long been cemented, but he’s never been one to be caught standing still.
Despite everything stacked against him in Game 4 of the NBA Finals – a foot injury, his teammates struggling and the type of pressure us mere mortals can’t even comprehend – Curry produced arguably one of the best games of his career (and there are many to pick from), torching the Boston Celtics for 43 points and leveling the Finals in the process.
Even after a career of multiple titles, multiple Most Valuable Awards and multiple All-NBA First teams, the star point guard is still showing why he’s a transcendent figure in the sport.
“He wasn’t letting us lose. That’s all it boils down to. I could tell in his demeanor,” Curry’s longtime Warriors teammate, Draymond Green, said after the Game 4 victory.
On Thursday, the Warriors clinched the 2022 NBA title with victory over the Celtics in Game 6 of the Finals, securing Curry yet another ring and his legacy as an all-time great.
The title is his fourth in eight seasons but is arguably the 34-year-old’s most impressive and – with his first Finals MVP award – cements his legacy as one of the 10 best players in league history among esteemed company.
“What they gonna say now?” Curry told Andscape’s Marc Spears after the game. “(You) hear all the talk about you as a player and us as a team, nobody outside of the Bay Area thought we would be here last October when the season started. Me as a player, obviously this Finals MVP stuff and all that, knew (we were) good enough to win three championships before.
“But to have the opportunity to go for a fourth (championship), and to accomplish this goal, too, God is great,” Curry said about the Bill Russell trophy. “Just happy I got to do it.”
Since joining the league in 2009, Curry has almost single-handedly changed the way basketball is played. Teams are now increasingly prioritizing their three-point shooting, while prospective NBA players arrive in the draft with well formed long-range shooting.
But for Curry, the master of the craft, he showed against the Celtics – the league’s No. 2 defense – why he is still the paragon for the three-point, flowing offense that the Warriors and head coach Steve Kerr have become so famous for.
Unlike in other heliocentric offenses – Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, for example – Curry doesn’t have the ball in his hands every possession, but don’t be fooled, the Dubs’ offense all works because of Curry.
He is the Sun in the Warriors’ solar system offense. His teammates revolve around his offensive threat, opening spaces even though he may not even have the ball and yet, even with all defenses slated towards him, such is his threat, Curry still finds ways to score.
Although his NBA record run of 233 games with at least one three-pointer came to an end in Game 5, just his presence on the court is enough to terrify defenders.
Not content with remaining in one position on the floor, Curry can often been spotted sprinting around without the ball attempting to relocate to a spot where he can get a shot off. And this motion, and the accurate passing of Green, has brought about not only huge successes for the Warriors, but it has transformed the league.
For the…
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