There Is Nothing Quite Like Watching Someone On Your Favorite Team Break An All Time Record
Noah Graham. Getty Images.Last night in Indiana, Steph Curry made 5 threes. Impressive for almost anyone else, for him it's his average. That performance brought his all time 3pt total to 2,972, which trails Ray Allen for the top spot by 1 3PM. Barring something truly insane or injury, it's looking pretty good that Curry takes care of business tonight at MSG. It wouldn't surprise me if he takes care of it in the first quarter.
With such a historic accomplishment, you could imagine how pumped Warriors fans are. If anyone understands what they're going through, it's myself and Celtics fans everywhere. I remember being in the building when Ray Allen broke Reggie Miller's record against the Lakers back in 2011. It was AWESOME
Part of that was the fact that the three point king was going to be a Celtic, part of that was it came against the Lakers, part of it was the fact that it came at home, it was a moment Celts fans will never forget. That's why a certain part of me is hoping Curry knocks it out tonight and not on Friday against Boston, but another part of me thinks it would be pretty cool if it happened on the same court that Ray broke the record. I suppose MSG isn't the worst place to do it and I imagine Reggie Miller will be on the TNT call tonight so that's pretty cool.
But this brings me to a larger point of how awesome it is as a fan to watch someone on your favorite team break a ridiculous record. It was a big deal when Ray did it, and he was in Boston for only a few years when it happened. With Steph, it's a whole other level. Doing it as a homegrown player for the only team he's ever played for (and probably will ever play for) is both extremely rare and extremely awesome. Considering he's showing no signs of slowing down who knows how long it'll be before someone eventually passes him if it ever even happens. For comparison, when Ray set the mark at 2,973 back in 2011, Steph Curry had 247 threes. That's wild. If you were to think of guys that could maybe one day pass Steph if they never regressed and only improved, how many even make that list? Maybe Trae Young (573 3PM)? Even that feels like a stretch.
Obviously, the rule changes and how the game evolved has played a role in what Curry has done, but that's because he was the one who changed the game in the first place. Just look at the next closes active players and where they rank. There's Harden at 2,509 but he's on the other side of 30. Dame is at 2,109, a cool 800+ behind. LeBron is at 2,023 and he's been in the league for nearly two decades. Something tells me we're going to wait a whole lot more than 10 years before someone catches Curry.
This sort of piggybacks my blog about KD from the other day. What we've been blessed with in terms of generational talents in this era of the NBA is truly special. It should be appreciated. We've been able to witness arguably the 2nd greatest player ever, the best individual scorer ever, and with Steph, the greatest shooter ever. That's insane and none of them are anywhere close to done. It's going to suck when those guys finally retire and the next wave takes over or as I call it, the Giannis Era. There's a ton of awesome young talent, but we're talking about all time greats here. Steph Curry's don't exactly grow on trees.
It's one thing for someone to break a game record, or a season record. Those are impressive, but anyone can get hot on any given night. I mean Marcus Smart owns the Celtics all time single game 3PM record with 11. When you start talking about All Time shit, it's different. That shows outrageous prolonged success. That's what made Ray Allen and Reggie Miller so impressive. They were robots. With Steph, not only is he consistent, but he's doing this shit while letting it fly from 35 feet on the regular. That's a little different from how Ray/Regghie did it. Off screens, off the dribble, anywhere on the court, it doesn't matter.
We knew it was only a matter of time for Steph to get to this moment, and now it's finally here. Crazy how time flies, 2011 feels like it was just yesterday. But now, the greatest shooter in the history of the sport has arrived to claim his spot on the three point shooting throne.
Good luck kicking him off.
