In 2016, award-winning author Andrew Cotto wrote a short article for Men's Journal about a fairly harmless topic while also making a fairly bold claim. The topic? His son's fourth-grade basketball team. The claim? Steph Curry was to blame for their poor play.
How on earth are those two related? Here's just a brief snippet from the intro, though the whole article is worth a quick, fun read:
Almost all of the players I coach on my kid’s elementary school basketball team share two notable characteristics: they worship Golden State’s Steph Curry, and they all think nothing of heaving thirty-foot jumpers in any game situation. They toss them up with a teammate open under the basket; they launch them when they’re off-balanced and outmatched; they shoot when they’re up by ten and it’s still the first quarter. Fundamentals are always hard to teach to 4th and 5th graders, and they always will be, but this year, it’s worse than ever, and Steph’s ludicrous shooting is to blame, because these kids want to be like Curry — wouldn’t you?
But does Cotto, award-winning author and all, really have the right to say that one of basketball's most important figures is ruining the game for a generation of kids that idolizes and worships him? Is Steph Curry really the person to paint in a somewhat villainous light, no matter how lightheartedly, considering he's an incredible role model and philanthropic figure that represents the NBA both on and off the court?
The answer to both of those questions, of course, is yes! I love Cotto's hypothesis. And according to another star NBA player — Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum — Cotto is right on. Though we can all agree that Curry has done wonderful things for the game of basketball, he's also maybe... too good?
"I think Curry is the best pure scorer in the league right now, as it stands, because of how he scores. Moves without the ball, he can score in iso situations, he finishes well around the rim," McCollum said on his "Pull Up" podcast. "He's a 95 percent free throw shooter, so virtually automatic when he gets to the line. And he's just a wizard. He's someone you have to look for at all times. He does things and you literally think, like, how is that possible?
"I think that he has changed the game for the better, but he has also changed the game for the worse, because a lot of kids are trying to replicate some of the things that he's doing, and some of that stuff just isn't virtually possible for kids. You have to get the reps in, you have to really practice your game, and as George Hill once said in the Finals, he said sometimes he just throws it up there and it appears as if God is just dropping it into the basket, which is very, very accurate at times."
The exact quote from former Cavs guard Hill, now with the 76ers, was a little bit different, but McCollum's paraphrasing had the premise down.
Is that really the type of shooting that we should be teaching to the future basketball stars of the world? Hoist up 30-foot threes, say a prayer and hope all goes well? Because based on McCollum's take — and Cotto's anecdote — that's where we're heading. And it's all thanks to Curry, who absolutely no one is seriously criticizing with these theories. Instead, Cotto, McCollum, myself... we're all just completely mystified as to how one person can be so unbelievably good at something that requires so much skill, even if it's as simple as chucking a ball through a hoop.
Now, if we really want to get into how Curry can change the game for the worse, we could talk about rule changes that would serve to make him better, somehow, than he already is.
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