ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry dazzled audiences tonight, tallying 45 points, 8 three-pointers against only 5 misses from beyond the arc, to go along with 10 assists. His array of moves, step-backs, side-steps, “hesi’s”, and pull-ups have seemed to supplant the slam dunk as the spectacular play of the modern NBA.
So what goes through the mind of such a talented player, a superstar who is on the verge of perhaps winning the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award?
Not even head coach Steve Kerr really knows.
“He never talks about it,” Kerr told reporters after the Warriors dispatched the Blazers, 116-105 tonight, with Curry supplying the fatal blows in the final 2:03 of a game that Golden State led 104-103 at that point.
“I think there have been a couple of moments the last few weeks,” Kerr added, “where he tried to win MVP. He is so skilled and the game comes so easy to him that if he just makes the simple play, he is still going to look great.”
Curry admitted that he had discussed the issue with Kerr.
“He brought it up a couple times, but I told him, I mean, I try to be aggressive, maybe doing some things that I don’t even know if they’re really outside of the offense, they’re just not the simple play in certain situations,” said Curry in the locker room after the game.
“So as coach, he probably just wanted to mention that and he’s doing his job and making sure everybody’s focused on what the real task is.”
As far as trying to win MVP, Curry insisted that’s not something that goes through his mind on the floor.
“You’re never out there playing with that as your motivation. You get sidetracked if you start doing that, kind of playing outside of yourself,” Curry explained. “In-game, it’s not, ‘Make a shot and boost my MVP resume,’ it’s, ‘We’ve got to win this game and that’s part of how great we’ve been.'”
Every shot Curry takes, make or miss, seems to put Oracle on edge and it builds throughout the game, especially during crunch time like tonight. #Roaracle was alternating between chants of, “Let’s go Warriors!” and “M-V-P!”
“When I was in those moments, it wasn’t, ‘Make this spectacular play to wow everybody and hopefully get more votes,'” Curry said. “It’s not really the motivation, but (Coach Kerr) made a good point just saying, ‘Just stick with what got us here and run our offense and you’ll have a huge impact on the game.'”
Very few people on the planet are capable of those dramatic moments on the basketball court that Stephen Curry puts his mark on. We can only try to understand what it’s like to be him, to feel the energy of the crowd and make the spectacular plays that he’s capable of.
He doesn’t seem to mind if he succeeds or fails.
“You want to finish it off, obviously, if that situation happens, but I try to just lock in and stay in the moment and whatever we need to do to finish that play, I’ll do it,” said Curry.
“It doesn’t happen all the time and that’s kind of a funny feeling. It’s like a huge letdown from that moment, but obviously the game keeps going on, so that’s the beauty of basketball. There’s always another play.”
And #DubNation will be there, eagerly anticipating that next play.
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