Stephen Curry sounds tired of fielding questions about Golden State‘s dominance of the Western Conference. The Warriors superstar dismissed a reporter’s question about the dominance both Golden State and Cleveland have shown this postseason.
A reporter asked Curry on Saturday for his take on people saying the NBA is “watered down” and a matchup between the Warriors and Cavaliers was “inevitable.” While the latter certainly seemed to be the case, Curry took exception to the idea that either Finals team had an easy path to a third straight championship showdown.
I mean, that almost is kinda disrespectful that it’s easy for us to get here. It wasn’t that at all.
Us and Cleveland work our butts off all year to put ourselves in a position to be playing for a championship.
Curry’s point is that even in sweeps (or a five-game Eastern Conference Final in Cleveland’s case), both teams had to work to get where they are. Which is true. He also pointed out that, while there’s certainly an arm’s race happening with teams like Cleveland and Golden State, there’s no lack of talent elsewhere in the league.
The league is as strong talent-wise as it’s ever been. Every night you get challenged.
Every night was hard. Every night was challenging. You can’t just sleepwalk through a season, sleepwalk through the playoffs and expect to be here. You have to come out every night and prove yourself.
I don’t think Curry’s being deferential to other players in the league here, either. He genuinely thinks it’s not a two-team league. And there’s also something to be said for the pride that comes in three straight NBA Finals appearances. In a way, he seemed resentful of those who say the postseason has been boring because it all came down to Cleveland and Golden State again.
“It’s easy for them to say that and just wake up and dream and see it happen,” Curry said. “We have to work at it all year long to make it happen. So you have to be proud of the accomplishments we’ve had.”
Predicting an NBA Finals may be easy, but Curry is making it clear actually getting there is not.
