Professional basketball in America is brutal and is dominated by physical monsters stretching over seven feet high. It is no game for the innocent, for the puny, for the quiet and unassuming, for choir boys yet pound for pound and inch for inch there may be no better player in the history of basketball in America than Stephen Curry.
Curry is just 28 years old, stands just 6' 3", and weighs just 190 pounds yet his on court accomplishments are shattering historic records every time he takes the court. The little man from who knows where who played college basketball where? defies definition and stereotype.
Stephen is all about family.
Stephen is all about the team.
No four letter words from this choir boy and he is the epitome of the perfect family man, father, and son. Curry just goes out and defies logic leaving fans, opponents, and the world in awe. Here are two accounts of his latest achievements.
Stephen Curry wins MVP for second straight season
Marc
Stein
ESPN Senior Writer
Curry, 28, swept all 131 first-place votes, including 130 from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters and one from the Kia MVP fan vote. San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard was second in the voting, followed by Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James.
Before the season began, NBA GMs voted Steph Curry fifth likeliest to win MVP. But as his own GM says, Curry is now doing things we'll never forget.
"I never really set out to change the game. I never thought that would happen in my career," Curry said Tuesday as he accepted the trophy during a news conference in
"What I wanted to do was be myself. ... I know it inspires the next generation. You can work every day to get better."
The Warriors returned home after Monday's Game 4 win in
"He wants it," coach Steve Kerr said. "There's no ulterior motive. He's constantly trying to improve with no agenda. ... This is incredibly improbable. But there's a reason this is happening."
Curry had been an overwhelming favorite to repeat as league MVP since the Warriors' record-setting 24-0 start to the season, which broke the previous record for best start to a season by nine wins. He also led the Warriors to a 73-9 mark, eclipsing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' 72-10 record as the winningest regular season in NBA history.
Shaquille O'Neal and James fell one vote shy of unanimous selection in 2000 and 2013, respectively. Curry joins Tom Brady (2010 NFL MVP) and Wayne Gretzky (1982 Hart Trophy winner) as the only unanimous MVPs in their respective leagues. There have been 17 unanimous MVPs in MLB history, most recently Bryce Harper, who was NL MVP last season.
Warriors guard Stephen Curry received all 131 first-place votes to become the first unanimous winner of the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award on Tuesday.
Curry is the first player in league history at any position to average 30 points per game in less than 35 minutes per game over a full season. He is the first two-time MVP in franchise history, and Wilt Chamberlain (1959-60) is the only other Warriors winner.
"You make going to work every day, for me, a true joy," Warriors general manager Bob Myers said to Curry. "It's very hard not to like you. I find it impossible. ... We should all appreciate this, appreciate this time, appreciate this moment, because life is happening fast."
Curry made 402 3-pointers, shattering his single-season NBA record of 286, which he set last season. He also joined Steve Nash and his coach, Steve Kerr, as the only players in league history to shoot at least 50 percent from the floor, 45 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the line in a season.
"They're going to have more of a spotlight, and people are going to ask questions about whoever it is," Curry said about the scrutiny of being MVP. "When there are legends and people that I looked up to as a player -- as a young kid, as a basketball player -- Hall of Famers and guys that talk about our team, it means that obviously we're doing something good, so we keep doing it. I take it with a grain of salt."
Curry is the 11th player to win back-to-back MVP awards in the NBA's 70-season existence. James was the last to achieve that feat, with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013.
New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady, the only unanimous winner of The Associated Press NFL MVP award, congratulated Curry in an email to Comcast Sports New England Tuesday.
"He is such a dominant player and so much fun to watch," Brady said. "I grew up loving the Warriors and can't believe they are achieving the type of success now that they never did in the past. Steph is a huge part of that and I love how (Warriors executive) Jerry West helped build the team. I am a big fan of his also."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Remember
the 6 players drafted ahead of 2-time NBA MVP Steph Curry?
San
Francisco Business Times
Who
was this skinny guard out of Davidson, and why did the Golden
State Warriors make
him their first-round pick and the seventh overall?
Warriors fans could be excused for
the grumbling following the 2009National
Basketball Association draft. Stephen
Curry had little to
his résumé outside of being the son of former NBA star Dell Curry and setting
the nets afire at Davidson. Sure, he was the NCAA scoring leader in his junior
season — his last at Davidson — and he was a consensus first-team All-American
pick. But … Davidson? The Southern Conference?
As Curry has shown,
though, big things come in relatively little packages. (At 6-foot, 3-inches, he
still is taller than most of us.) After Wednesday, he now has racked up two NBA
Most Valuable Player awards — an NBA-first unanimous selection this season —
led the Warriors to the franchise's first NBA championship in 40 years and
elevated that with a record-setting, 73 wins this season.
For a franchise that
over the past five seasons had used its first-round picks on Anthony Randolph
(14th overall), Marco Belinelli (18th overall), Patrick O'Bryant (ninth
overall), Ike Diogu (ninth overall) and Andris Biedrins (11th overall),
Warriors fans could be excused for their skepticism.
Even then, Warriors
fans wondered whether Curry could be an everyday player, and they booed
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob soon after he traded away once-beloved
Monta Ellis to Milwaukee
(Double click on video for full screen)
There's the
intangible quality of character when franchises — and companies — build their
teams. It goes beyond statistics.
"Your own mom
didn't know you'd make it in the league," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr noted during Wednesday afternoon's MVP
award ceremony at Oracle Arena in Oakland. "Now you've got a banner behind
us, two of these trophies — this is incredibly improbable.
"What
makes you special, Steph, is obviously you've got a lot of God-given talent,
but it's the determination, it's the love of the game. There is no agenda. It's
just 'I want to get better.' There is no agenda, and every day you come in and
you work.
What that means to our coaching staff is our jobs are incredibly easy because you set a tone for the whole organization, and we've got a team full of guys who work and want to get better every day."
What that means to our coaching staff is our jobs are incredibly easy because you set a tone for the whole organization, and we've got a team full of guys who work and want to get better every day."
Five
other teams passed on picking up Curry — Minnesota missed out twice (though one
account has Dell Curry telling the Timberwolves that his son didn't want to go
there) — and two of the first six picks are no longer in the NBA seven years
later.
Yet, though Wednesday's ceremony was
centered on Curry, he used the word "team" no less than 11 times.
As
Warriors General Manager Bob Myers put it Wednesday, there is nothing
fake about Curry.
"I
tried to surround myself with people that push me, that motivate me, that keep
me focused on the right things in this life," Curry said. "I have
that on this stage right here. I have that in my family — and for that, I'm extremely
blessed and extremely thankful for that. This is a crazy world, and to have
that kind of guidance and motivation, it's definitely allowed me to do what I
do on and off the court."
Ron covers biotech and sports
business.
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