In the current climate of deflategates, domestic violence cases, performance enhancing drug scandals and investigations revealing corruption across all levels of professional sports, sincerity seems to be a rarity in sports these days. But there are small moments, like this one between Stephen Curry and James Harden, that remind us it’s not all bad.
After Golden State’s 104-90 victory over the Houston Rockets Wednesday night earned them their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1975, Curry embraced Houston’s Harden as confetti fell around them to celebrate the Warriors’ victory.
“All year, you pushed me, dog.”
Curry, who won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award after a averaging 23.8 points per game, eclipsed his old mark for most three-pointers in a season and led the Warriors to a 67-15 record in the regular season (one of the 10 best of all-time), edged out Harden for the hardware earlier this May. The two superstars were seemingly neck-and-neck for the award all season long before Curry emerged as the victor.
Harden finished the regular season averaging 27.4 points (narrowly falling to Russell Westbrook for the NBA Scoring title), 7.0 assists and 5.7 rebounds in 36.8 minutes per game. He also carried a Rockets team missing Dwight Howard for most of the season to the No. 2 seed in the brutal Western Conference.
Game 1 of The Finals between Golden State and the Cleveland Cavaliers is set to begin at 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 4.
[ESPN]