Did Steph Curry Have Something to Prove?

The short answer is absolutely not.

The greatest shooter of all time has already revolutionized the game. His resume speaks for itself. Having just won his fourth championship in eight seasons, Curry is on the Mount Rushmore of the National Basketball Association.

However, he seemed to be playing at a different level during the NBA Finals and I’m not just talking about his shooting percentage. He looks so locked in and determined to make this a memorable series personally. With no Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson still coming back from injury, it’s all on Curry. Not that he minds. The confident shooter is embracing his role as the elder statesman on Golden State. He seems to have his eye on one of the only trophy he had yet to capture during his illustrious career, Finals MVP. That was until last night at the TD Garden in Boston.

Teammate Draymond Green who is never scared to speak his opinion said the Warriors’ offense has always run through Curry. When asked if the team was overusing the point guard he said,

“Our offense is always a lot of Steph, it all starts with Steph. When KD was here, our offense still started with Steph. That’s the way it’s going to be.”

That’s absolutly not a knock on Durant, but a fact. This team will go as far as Curry will carry them. His ability to shoot from almost anywhere on the floor allows for better match ups for his teammates.

OG Disrespect

One of the greatest scorers in recent NBA history, Tracy McGrady shared his thoughts with NBC Sports Washington on Curry and his lack of memorable playoff moments.

“You’ve gotta think, he won a championship, right against LeBron [James] that didn’t have Kyrie [Irving], that didn’t have Kevin Love. He didn’t win the [Finals] MVP, right? Then he loses a 3-1 lead to Lebron, gets K.D., K.D. comes and wins two championships, so that gives Steph three championships, but K.D. wins the two MVPs, right?”

As a reminder, McGrady is a zero-time NBA champion and never even had an opportunity to compete for a Finals MVP trophy. What can he or any other doubters say after Curry’s performance this time?

Series Breakdown

Game 1: Curry started off red hot, breaking an NBA Finals record. In the second half, however the wheels started to fall off and Boston was able to come up big and steal game one on the road. After letting game one slip away at home, Curry put up some big numbers in game two.

Game 2: The Warriors couldn’t start the series off 0-2 at home. Once again Curry came up big for his team with 29 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. After this game he joined some elite company.

Game 3: Boston took a 2-1 series lead and many were ready to count Golden State out. In that game Curry dropped 31 and we got this iconic photo of Curry looking like he was cooking up something for the rest of the series.

Game 4: This was Curry’s breakout scoring game. He finished with 43 points to even the series at two games each.

Game 5: Boston had a defensive game plan to take the ball out of Curry’s hands and force other players like Andrew Wiggins to beat them and it worked for Golden State. Curry didn’t have a made three and the Warriors still came out with the win.

Game 6: They said they were going to end it in Boston and they did. With the championship on the line, the Celtics came out hot, but cooled out before the first quarter ended. This allowed Golden State to go on a tear and never look back. Another thirty point-plus game for Curry who took it to defensive player of the year Marcus Smart.

At the end of the game, Curry commented on how this on was different. He told media outlets,

This one hits different for sure, just knowing what the last three years have meant, what it’s been like from injuries to changing of the guard in the rosters, Wiggs coming through, our young guys carrying the belief that we could get back to this stage and win, even if it didn’t make sense to anybody when we said it, all that stuff matters.

This fourth championship is different. He now joins LeBron James and Shaq in the four rings club. Similar to them, Curry put his team on his back and led them to a championship. Stop disrespecting Wardell Stephen Curry. He has nothing left to prove.