The Passion of Steph is on full display after scoring 47 against Kings
The Passion of Steph is on full display after scoring 47 against Kings
Look at Curry man, so inspirational!
"Winning has a price.
And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn't want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn't want to be challenged. And I earned that right because [other] teammates came after me.
They didn't endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn't going to take anything less.”
We’ve officially entered Stephen Curry’s OG phase of his career folks. On a nightly basis you can find him demonstratively coaching on the floor with furious gesticulation to signal to his younger players exactly where they have to go.
But yelling and hopping madly can only get you so far, folks. Eventually all that talking and scowling has to manifest in action, even if that means putting the team on your back and making it happen yourself. Leading by example is where Curry’s leadership truly excels, and we witnessed it again Monday night when he detonated all over the Sacramento Kings’ to lift the struggling Golden State Warriors out of a five game losing streak.
We know that it’s a team game, but there’s times the team needs the hero to be the hero. This is why Curry is the highest paid player on the Dubs, his face all over Carmax commercials, and why he hosted the ESPYs. He’s THE MAN. When the pressure is on, greatness shows up and shows out.
We can all apply that principle in our everyday life. Maybe your child can’t reach the tall cabinets where the cereal is; you gotta reach up there and grab them that Cap’n Crunch. Perhaps your significant other is having a tough time; step it up and surprise them with a dinner and movie night.
Or maybe your reigning, defending, undisputed NBA champions are losing to the freakin’ Kings at home and you need to drop 47 points to save a 116-113 win. That’s what greatness is, baby: putting the team on your back and pulling victory out when all hope seems lost.
47 points is Steph’s season high so far, and is the second highest points scored in the 2022-2023 behind Ja Morant’s 49. I dug through some stats to find that the Warriors have a 14-6 record when Curry has scored 47 or more points.
If you’re wondering why he hasn’t had more of these huge nights over his illustrious career, keep in mind that there’s been lotta GSW wins where he’s on a scoring binge and the game is over in the third quarter, allowing the luxury of spending the final period relaxing on the bench, smirking with a towel over his head.
(We haven’t seen too many of those yet this year, as the bench has blown some leads figuring out their roles and health…but I digress.)
This was Curry’s sixth time scoring exactly 47 points, and surprisingly to me the team has a 2-4 record in these instances. That didn’t seem right, so I dug through the video archives to verify it was true. And gosh darnit, the nerds were right! Here’s the other five instances of Curry hitting 47.
April 12th, 2013 vs Lakers
Most fans probably remember this night as the game where Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles and still made the ensuing free throws before his season ended. But the reason Bryant was being pushed to that level in the first place is because a young upstart Warriors squad was all on the Lakers’ necks, led by Curry’s 47 points. The Dubs would eventually fall in L.A. 118-116, with Curry narrowly missing an 80-foot heave that would have won the game.
April 13th, 2014 vs Trail Blazers
Watch Curry cook a young Damian Lillard in a 119-117 OT loss to Portland.
June 5th, 2019 vs Raptors
This Game 3 footage is burned into my brain, as Curry heroically battled against an excellent Toronto Raptors defense in the NBA Finals. Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson both missed this game, forcing Curry to go berserk to try and lift the likes of Jonas Jerebko and Alfonzo McKinnie in a painful 123-109 loss. At this stage of his career, 47 points was the most he had ever scored in a playoff game.
April 17th, 2021 vs Celtics
Ah yes, the Covid-shortened season where the “wasting Curry’s prime” narrative received it’s genesis. No Klay Thompson for the year, a failed play-in bid, and missed playoffs. But gosh did Curry go off that year, including this 47-point outburst against the Boston Celtics that had a national television audience spellbound. Unfortunately it came in a 119-114 loss.
March 14th, 2022 vs Wizards
Curry lit up the Wiz for 47 last spring and I have to quote my own recap for this one, as this was the first game that the Big 3 of Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green played together in over 1,000 days…and it was Steph’s birthday!
“Well well well. After smacking the Washington Wizards 126-112 in San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors are undefeated when Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green are all on the floor healthy this season. Did you see anything that bodes well for the future, Dub Nation?
Curry turned 34 last night. They told me he was going through an age related decline.”
In closing, I’d like to express the appreciation I have for Steph and how he’s poured out his soul for my hometown team. I love this dude, and hopefully he can bring along the younger prospects to support him when his body is getting old and can’t will his way to 47+ points anymore.
But until then, BALL ON THESE SUCKAS STEPH!
https://twitter.com/RealTomPetrini/status/1590532574736445440
https://twitter.com/AndrewDBailey/status/1590491661846867968
The "Poeltl on the Warriors" vision is so clear.
>This was Curry’s sixth time scoring exactly 47 points, and surprisingly to me the team has a 2-4 record in these instances.
Not super surprising. Any time a single player has to put in this much work, it means that the rest of the team is really struggling. High scoring nights often indicate a game where the rest of the team is rubbish. And more than a few times, NBA scoring champions are playing for teams that never make the Finals, because the team is rubbish (and/or because that star player is making so much $$$ that they can't pay for a decent supporting cast).
But here's what I really came to discuss: Was listening to the Ringer NBA Show today (usually fairly entertaining, but rarely informative), and one comment caught my ear: the fairly common suggestion that young players need to have a lot of free reign to make big mistakes, but also the same latitude to make big splashy plays. The podcast was suggesting that while the 'little things' like boxing out, defending, rebounding, etc are certainly very important (the only things Kerr really allows) - they do very little for the confidence and ego necessary to really ascend as a young prospect. Basically, young players gotta have some filet to go alongside the roasted broccolini (admittedly, I love the greens). Anyway, these splashy and mistake-riddled minutes are rare with the whole Two-Timeline™ gimmick, when every minute counts because the clock on Curry and the core is ticking. It's why draft rookies usually go to developing teams where they can test the limits of their game, and in part why our younglings are still struggling.
Lastly, Steph is just unreal outa-this-world amazing. And I'd trade any and every player on the Warriors to get that man to the Finals again. F*ck it, anyone not named Steph, Green, Looney or Wiggins better step up and show some respect for Steph's legacy, because we likely won't see the likes of him again. We all know (though we block out the thought) that the Warriors will likely be just another basketball team when Steph retires. So this is it. Where's WastingCurrysPrime! so I can finally join that bandwagon?