The public face of most NBA players (non-Tyrese Maxey Division) is one of studied nonchalance. Nothing can surprise them, concern them, bring them true joy. Theirs is an impenetrable facade, or so they would have you believe.
Then Steph Curry explodes, and all bets are off.
To me, that will be one of the enduring images of the just-concluded Olympics – how the Curry Flurry late in the gold-medal game against France reduced his teammates, some of the biggest stars in the game, to disbelieving onlookers. To elongated schoolkids, laughing, hugging, holding their heads in disbelief.
That’s the Steph Effect, writ extra large. He’s not just a breath of fresh air. He’s a freakin’ tsunami.
Like Allen Iverson years before him, he is a little man in a big man’s game, but one who plays with such verve and energy that he ignites the entire arena. He goes off, and everybody comes along for the ride.
By now we’ve all seen the video of Saturday’s barrage. Of Curry nailing four 3-pointers within a two-minute, 13-second span in the fourth quarter of Team USA’s 98-87 victory over the host nation. The last was the most ridiculous heat check ever, a right-wing bomb against a Nico Batum–Evan Fournier double-team that somehow found the bottom of the net with 35 seconds to play.
NBC play-by-play voice Noah Eagle declared it “a golden dagger,” and afterward Curry predictably trotted out his night-night gesture, the one where he puts his hands palm to palm and places them alongside his face.
That might be considered obnoxious if the wrong player did it, but he gets a hall pass because he’s brought us all so much joy for so many years. Also because he truly does seem like a decent guy. How often have we seen him celebrating others’ success, whether with the Warriors or the national team? How often has he displayed genuine humility, even as he has established himself as the greatest shooter ever?
He went 8-for-13 from three while scoring 24 points Saturday, after going 9-for-14 from the arc and putting up 36 in the semifinals, when Team USA erased a 17-point deficit to beat a Nikola Jokic-led Serbian squad.
These were Curry’s first Olympics, and likely his only ones, as he is 36. And Saturday’s display is arguably the signature moment of his career, supplanting Game 6 of the 2022 Finals in Boston, when he scored 34 to wrap up his fourth championship, and his first Finals MVP.
Other than that, what is there? That ridiculous shot to beat Oklahoma City in a long-ago regular-season game? Can’t think of much else. When Golden State won titles in ‘17 and ‘18, it was Kevin Durant who supplied the daggers. When the Dubs won it in ‘15, Andre Iguodala, the old Sixer turned ultimate glue guy, hogged center stage for jousting with LeBron James.
But now we have this from Curry, on the only stage that might be considered bigger than the NBA Finals. It came after France cut an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to three: Steph from the top of the circle, off a LeBron feed … from the left wing, after shrugging off Batum … from the top again, after Devin Booker found him … and, finally, from deep on right wing, with Fournier and Batum draped all over him.
And, well, night-night.
I found myself wondering afterward if I’d rather have Curry’s past or Victor Wembanyama’s future, because Wemby, the Spurs’ reigning Rookie of the Year, scored 26 for France, playing Joel Embiid off the floor in the process. He is the Next Big Thing in every sense of the word, and might well be the best player in the Olympics when the Games reconvene in Los Angeles in four years.
By then, Team USA’s headliners will likely include Booker, who showed the full breadth of his talents in these Games. Or the much-aggrieved Jayson Tatum. Or Tyrese Haliburton, who also played sparingly in Paris. Others, like Maxey or Jalen Brunson or Chet Holmgren, will also have to emerge, since we have likely seen the last of LeBron and Durant on this stage.
Same for Curry, who once again swept us along in his joyful tsunami, causing even the most stolid observers to take leave of their senses. Given where he is in his career, it is something to savor, something to cling to. Because finding someone to fill his shoes will be, you should pardon the expression, the ultimate long shot.