Hot takes are the backbone of sports fandom, the division and connection between fanbases, and Bishop Gorman is filled with all kinds of sports fans with all kinds of hot takes.
Braylen Williams ’28 is the second on the series No Chill, where students will give their sports hot takes, and I’ll argue for and against it, at the end rating the hot take 1-10 on a scale of how hot it is, and stating my opinion on whether I agree or disagree with it.
Williams’ hot take is, “Stephen Curry is the greatest NBA player of all time.” Curry is certainly among the greatest in the conversation. Over the last few years he’s shot up the rankings with historic moment after historic moment. Curry went seemingly out on the lowest note possible in the 2019 NBA Finals, losing 2-4 to the Toronto Raptors after a series of key injuries, including Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Iguodala, and more. The following season, Curry played only 4 games before breaking his hand, suffering nerve damage that caused him to nearly miss the rest of the season, only returning for one game against the Toronto Raptors later into the season. However, the next year was different for Curry, in the 2020-21 NBA season Stephen Curry led the league in scoring averaging 32.0 points per game, he was also 3rd in the MVP race. Although the Warriors as a team fell short in the play-in against the Memphis Grizzlies, the following season was even more epic for Curry. He broke the record for most three pointers made in NBA history, won the NBA Championship, Finals MVP, Western Conference Finals MVP, All-Star MVP (50 points with 16 made threes in the All-Star game, nearly doubling the previous record of 9) averaged 31.2 points per game in the finals, a legendary game four performance down 1-2 in the NBA Finals posting 43 points, 10 rebounds, 7 three pointers. The next year, in the 2022-23 season, the Warriors didn’t compete on the highest level as a team, still Curry had another spectacular season individually, averaging 29.4 points per game. He broke the record at the time for highest scoring game 7 ever in NBA history, with 50 points in the first round against the Sacramento Kings, before falling short to the Los Angeles Lakers 2-4 in the next round. The next year was rather forgettable for Curry and the Warriors, Curry averaged 26.4 points per game and missed sizable amounts of time due to injury. After the 2023-24 season Curry participated in the 2024 Olympics, USA won the Gold Medal, Curry won Olympic Male Athlete of the Year, nominated for Best Championship Performance at the ESPYs, and had perhaps the most legendary two game run in the history of global basketball. Posting 36 points in the semi-finals against Serbia in a storming comeback win for the US, and 24 points on 8 threes in the Gold Medal game against France, during which he had an iconic last two minutes of gameplay.
Before the turn of the decade, Curry was still considered one of the greats. Before the year 2020, Curry had already been to the finals five times, winning three of them. He was a two time NBA MVP, and the only unanimous MVP in NBA history, still holding that status to this day. He’d tied and broken the record for most threes in a game at 13, before his teammate and “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson took the record at 14 threes two years after. Curry’s resume truly stacks up with anyone in the history of basketball, and his gameplay may be the most entertaining to ever watch.
Stephen Curry is undoubtedly one of the greatest basketball players of all time, but can he stack up against the absolute best of the best? LeBron James and Michael Jordan is the conversation everyone is having, who’s the true GOAT? Steph hasn’t quite entered that conversation in mass, yet there have been whispers that he should be entering or should’ve already entered. Consensus top 10 NBA player ever, Shaquille O’Neal, has been quoted as saying Curry should be in the GOAT conversation. On social media, it’s starting to become a popular topic, is Steph the GOAT, or at least in the conversation? And while it’s more popular now than ever to put him in the conversation, most agree he’s not the GOAT. Michael Jordan is the most popular answer when asking the GOAT, especially when it comes to those over the age of 25. However, it’s becoming closer every day with the amount of people saying LeBron James, who is nearing Jordan’s status every passing day, if he hasn’t already achieved or surpassed it. Steph just can’t hold up to these two, after that, Steph has an argument with anyone, but not quite these two. Especially not Jordan, because the case can be made that Steph is 3-1 against James in the NBA Finals, and ate more than anyone in the “LeBron Era”. Steph can hold up an argument against James in that sense, but barely has an argument other than that, and almost no argument at all for Jordan.
In my opinion, Steph is the 3rd greatest NBA player of all time, but simply cannot currently pass the top 2, LeBron James and Michael Jordan, in whatever order you place them. I would rate this hot take a 10/10, because passionate arguments can be made for Steph and absolutely have to be heard, but it’s hard to argue against James and Jordan.