5 Interesting Segments From Stephen Curry's Interview on the BS Podcast
If you are a fan of the NBA and have scoured all the sports websites out there for quality basketball conversations, chances are that you've heard of a guy named Bill Simmons. He is, in my mind, the best sports podcaster in the business, and ran ESPN's Grantland blog for a long time before opening up his own publication, The Ringer.
Simmons has a great equation with most people within the NBA fraternity, and players like Kevin Durant, among others, have often used his Bill Simmons podcast to put themselves out there and express themselves.
In the dark, dreary days of the offseason when there is no match to rave about or check the highlights of, the Simmons podcast represents possibly the best opportunity to stay in tune with the life and times of the NBA fraternity.
Steph Curry was the latest guest on his podcast, which went live yesterday. Here are a few tidbits that stood out the most from it yesterday:
#1 The emergence of Golden State as contenders
Simmons started his segment by recalling the last time he'd had a radio interview at length with Steph - back in 2013. He then went on to list all that Curry's achieved in the intervening period - first All-Star Game selection, MVP, a championship, the unanimous MVP run, the 73-9 record and blowing a 3-1 lead in the Finals before winning back-to-back titles in the last two seasons.
He then posed the question: "When did you realize this might happen? Was there a game or a stretch when you were like 'Holy s**t, we might actually win some titles.'?"
Now, as obvious even to casual onlookers, even Steph may not have anticipated the kind of success he's had in the last 5 seasons, and he said as much while marking the 2013 playoffs as the starting point of it all:
"It was somewhere around that 2013 season when it felt like we could win every game we showed up to, whether or not we had the experience. Jarrett Jack was an experienced, old head who was there around those times, and he brought that presence into the locker room."
"Our speed and talent got to the Spurs in the first two games, but they closed out that series with their experience. It was a real eye-opener."
Bill Simmons, like pretty much every basketball fan who follows the NBA rabidly, believes that Klay Thompson is the best man's man on the Warriors' roster, going on to say:
“Oh, that guy, he’s everybody’s favorite teammate. There will always be multiple choices. And with Klay [Thompson], it just seems like he’s everybody’s favorite teammate."
Curry replied in the affirmative: "100 percent. Even DeMarcus [Cousins] said it in his press conference. He doesn’t even play with Klay, besides in the Olympics two years ago, but he’s like, 'That’s my favorite guy already.' And he hasn’t spent a day in the Warriors locker room with us. But yeah, [Klay] has that presence that you need. He’s unique, for sure."