This year’s MVP watch has to involve Stephen Curry. He’s he best player on the best team, but there are countless other candidates this season in what has to be the most wide open-race in over a decade. When he was put on the spot to select someone other than himself, or teammate Klay Thompson, after calling into the Dan Patrick Show, Curry took the four-time winner now playing in Cleveland.
Fast forward to 35 seconds in to hear the relevant portion, but Steph would vote for himself first. Here’s the full exchange including the wording that led to his LeBron utterance:
Dan Patrick: If I didn’t know, nobody saw your ballot — so you filled out and nobody knew whose it was, would you vote for you?
[Dramatic pause]
Stephen Curry: Yes.
Dan Patrick: If you can’t vote for you, and you can’t vote for Klay Thompson either. So, who are you voting for?
Stephen Curry: Ahh man. I can’t vote for myself, and I can’t vote for Klay, then I’d — this year — I’d probably would vote for LeBron.
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The choice of LeBron James might seem odd until you actually look at his numbers and Cleveland’s record after he came back from his two-week sabbatical (1/13): The Cavs have gone 25-7 since then, moving up into the No. 2 spot in the East, with the top offensive rating in the league (112.2) and the second-best net rating (9.8), per NBA.com. James himself has averaged 26.4 points, 7.1 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 35 minutes per game during that time. He’s not shooting in the upper stratosphere he reached in his final two seasons in Miami, but 49.3 percent since his two-week break is impressive considering he’s only connecting on 33.7 percent of his 5.5. three-point attempts in that time.
What’s even more peculiar than Steph’s answer is that he even gave one. Players are normally loathe to give an opponent any sort of advantage, but Curry isn’t like most superstars.
Patrick also asked Steph if he could have the future of Russell Westbrook, James Harden, or Anthony Davis, who would he pick?
“Anthony Davis all day long…he’s doing stuff before the age of 22 that’s unreal.”
Curry also alluded to a future for Davis that doesn’t have a ceiling; like when Davis is able to stroke it from beyond the arc at a better-than 40 percent clip:
Just watching him shoot, you can tell he was a guard at one point growing up because he has those mechanics that you can’t really teach. I predict he will probably be a 40 percent three point shooter by the time his career is over. If you add that to his game, I don’t know what you do.
Stephen Curry should probably win this year’s MVP (best player on the best team), but his comfort discussing other MVP contenders with Patrick just shows you his confidence. There’s nothing better than a player who is comfortable in their own skin (the same could be said for everyone else, too), and Curry is just that. Plus, he’s a lot like astute NBA fans; people who can appreciate the upside of a player like Brow while acknowledging what a four-time MVP like LeBron has done this season in Cleveland after starting so out of sorts. It’s just another reason to love the Warriors PG and MVP candidate.
(Yahoo)
