Stephen Curry admits he wanted to shut up the haters with his fourth championship: ‘I hear all the narratives’

For all that Stephen Curry has accomplished over his Hall of Fame career, this fourth title that he and his Golden State Warriors just won is — in Steve Kerr’s estimation — his “crowning achievement.” 

It’s hard to argue. This was not a super team. Curry carried this team in every conceivable way, and in doing so, one would think that he finally put an end to whatever doubt still existed as to his place among the all-time greats. 

We’ve all heard the narratives. Curry only won in 2015 because Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were hurt. Then he blew a 3-1 lead. Then he needed Kevin Durant for his next two titles. All of those claims are bogus. Absolute trash. But they were out there, and Curry has been listening. Walking off the court on Thursday, he admitted it feels good to shut the critics up. 

“I hear all the narratives,” Curry said. “You hear everything about what we [as a team] are and what we aren’t, and what I am as a player and what I’m not. I have a hard time figuring out what they’re going to say now, so this is pretty special.”

Curry’s brother, Seth, chimed in with his own tweet that was clearly directed at the people who’ve never quite wanted to give Steph his all-time due. 

So here’s where I need to be clear about something. I’ve been one of the biggest Curry fans imaginable since day one. I grew up with the Warriors. It has driven me nothing short of crazy over the years to hear people trying, in any way they can, to diminish Curry as an all-time great. It’s ludicrous. Even after what he just did in these Finals, I saw a couple of tweets saying he’s still a “system player.” 

He is the system!

That said, I have been critical of Curry at points, particularly this season, which was the worst shooting campaign of his career by a wide margin. That’s not hating. That’s a fact. Where I was wrong, pretty clearly, was in jumping to a conclusion that Curry isn’t quite the same player anymore. A year and a half ago, I tweeted this:

Man, that’s a tough one to swallow. That’s got to be one of the worst takes ever. I’ll own it. Though I never would’ve questioned his place among the all-timers, I thought Curry was starting to slip. I really did. Silly me. If by some miracle Curry ever saw one of these tweets or read one of my headlines in which I spoke of this so-called drop-off, and it fueled him to play like this in the Finals, hey, I’m happy to have done my part . 

But seriously, what more can the guy do? He won a title before Durant, and now he’s won one after Durant. He’s tied LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal with four titles. Shaq had Kobe and D-Wade. LeBron had Wade, Bosh and Anthony Davis. But none of those guys won a championship with a roster as thin (relatively speaking) as this Warriors team, on which, at times, it could be honestly argued that Andrew Wiggins was the second-best player. 

When Curry says he’ll have a hard time figuring out what the critics are going to say now, what he’s saying is he knows there will be something. There has to be something. But whatever it is, there will be no merit to it. Absolutely none. Curry’s all-time-great case is unimpeachable. Everyone who ever felt the need to question that officially needs to shut up. 

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