Golden State Warriors point guard and reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry is incredibly fun to watch. He has great handles, he’s a flashy passer, and he can routinely drill 35-footers off the dribble. Who doesn’t love to watch him play. Even Barack Obama’s loving it.
The latest to rave about Curry’s watchability is Dallas Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki. This comes after the Mavs’ 18-point loss to the Warriors Friday night.
I mean, I don’t think this league has ever seen anything like [Curry]. His range is basically as soon as he crosses half court. He’s making shots look routine that no other player can even make in practice consistently. He just makes it look effortless. He just kind of goes up from the dribble in one motion, doesn’t waste any effort there. Incredible.
He’s so much fun to watch. When he’s in the zone, I catch myself screaming at the TV, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’ as soon as he crosses half court. It’s so much fun to watch.
You know, we’ve had some great athletes and specimens in this league, but that’s not him. He’s a smaller guy. Obviously, he’s quick, but the way he makes it is with skill. That’s why everybody is rooting for him, because everybody can relate to him.
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The thing is, he shoots it so quick off the dribble that you never really know when he’s going to pull up. He’s kind of like here [Nowitzki pretends to dribble a ball], and then next thing you know he comes up with the ball out of his dribble and the ball is gone within a split second. Obviously, he’s still pretty quick off the dribble, so the guy has got to be worried about him just driving by. But he’s in such a great groove right now that it’s almost better to let him drive by and lay it in. At least that’s only two points, you know?
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Yeah, I just don’t know if we’ll see that again. Obviously, a lot of kids now are going to try to imitate that and shoot 3s from deep. Maybe in a few years, that’s normal. I don’t know. If kids start shooting at an early age, start hoisting runners from 40 feet, maybe 10 years down the road you do have to move the 3-point line back. But as of now, he’s really the only guy that can make those over and over and over. If you watch his pregame, he does that all the time. He’s a freak.
Obviously, Dirk feels(rightfully so) that a player like Curry has never existed before. Nowitzki does, however, see flashes of his former teammate Steve Nash in Curry’s game:
Some of the flashy, behind-the-back passes and how he pushes it on the break and pulls up. When they do get in the lane, they kind of get caught in the air and make stuff up, up in the air. That’s special. He’s obviously a lot better shooter off the dribble and scorer than Steve ever was, but I see some of the movements, some of the drives, some of the behind-the-backs in traffic and stuff like that that Steve definitely had.
But I think Steve never looked to shoot as much. He was always a setup guy first. Even sometimes, we had to force him to shoot, because he was such a great shooter. With Steph, if he has any daylight — or really, no daylight — that thing’s going up. It’s so much fun to watch.
One thing is for sure: Stephen Curry is special. I know it. You know it. Dirk knows it. Obama knows it. Everyone knows it. We’ve never seen a player like this before, and who knows if we’ll see a player like this again? Enjoy it while it lasts, folks.
