The short answer to our chapter title today? No. Steph Curry, in the long term, will not ultimately be good for the game of basketball.
In the present moment? of course, he’s good for the basketball INDUSTRY. Why? Well… money. Duh. We get it.
Why does pushing Curry equal money for the National Basketball Association? The answer is a bit bigger than “because he’s great.” Curry definitely is a great ball player. However, let’s examine just three reasons:
All-star game style basketball, with a gimmick shot like the three-pointer stirred in, is exciting. I’m infamous in some circles of basketball fans for saying that the three point shot ought to be repealed. I believe that outlawed this would be better for the purity of the game, at least in terms of on-court play.
The three point shot does cause excitement, and that is usually the response I get when I posit “get rid of the trey.” Basketball fanatics look at me with their foreheads all wrinkled, not understanding why anyone would say that. Is excitement always better? It is great, for casual fans, and for real NBA fans who are easily swept away.
As for the game of basketball itself, excitement for excitement’s sake can hurt the foundation of a thing. I’ll go so far to say that it usually does.
Little dudes and dudettes want to be like Curry, or be Curry. Steph has certain qualities that make him a perfect idol for our time. He’s a boy next door type, a little brother looking guy who we somehow think is some kind of underdog, despite the reality of his NBA-laden upbringing and family.
He’s the little dude who beats the big dudes, and that appeals to almost all of us. Paraphrasing one fan’s comment about Allen Iverson, he gives hope to the regular ones in a game of big ones.
In 2018, it’s well-known that Curry’s success has helped breed hundreds or thousands of basketball players whose main concern is whether they can hit long-range shots. Sports and life overall is full of people who copycat someone else’s success. Nothing wrong with that because that is how we learn. Except we go beyond just copying and into a kind of channeling, and idol worship, that makes us believe we can duplicate someone down to the cellular structure. At that point, whatever we’re observing becomes gross and unwatchable. If you’re disagreeing right now, you’re just ten years behind me. It’s okay.
The same fans and media who complained about the NBA’s “iso-ball” style ten to twenty years ago, somehow cannot see that “long-ball” is not an improvement. They said Iverson and other similar players made the game slow and predictable–well, why are those critics silent now? Maybe because lots of fans and media personalities see their six-foot-and-under selves in Curry.
We identify with overcoming odds, even if it’s just a Hollywood movie full of fiction, and even if it includes Curry, who really isn’t an underdog. I don’t care if “people didn’t think he’d be that good.” It’s still just a perception… or, a narrative, to put forth an overused word.
Curry is the league’s foremost representative of the “new thing.” Pitting the statistical milestones of him and other current players against past NBA stars is natural.
It’s natural for the new generation to want to cast aside the former. It’s natural for younger fans to notice how media and older fans talk about Michael Jordan or Larry Bird, and get jealous or cynical. “He couldn’t have been all that,” they say, and then go about to not only dismantle the past, but go overboard in lifting their favorite, newer players.
The slipping of pro basketball’s in-game integrity, and consequently of lower levels of hoops, is not all on Steph Curry. It’s not his fault. He’s just the (baby) face of this thing.
Meanwhile, old heads like me (an entire forty-plus years on the earth) are mocked and told to “evolve” with the times. Well, I’ve got no choice but to watch the parade move past.
But that doesn’t mean the evolution of NBA basketball, or that change for the sake of change, is a good thing. It’s progressive by definition. Yet progression sometimes means that your parade is descending into darkness, foolishness, and oblivion. As long as it’s fun in the moment, though… right?
Further reading:
IS THE THREE-POINTER OUTDATED?–THREE POINT CULT
TIME TRAVEL VERSUS UPGRADE–G.O.A.T.: ADJUSTING FOR ERA
BULLS ’96 vs. WARRIORS ’16
NBA ALL-TIME FRANCHISE TEAMS–DISMANTLING MJ