Patrick Beverley Laid Out How Steph Can Pass LeBron James As The Defining Player Of This Generation

The Golden State Warriors will play for an NBA championship for the sixth time in eight years. Golden State won Game 5 over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday evening to secure their standing as the champions of the Western Conference. Now, they’ll have to sit back and wait to see if the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat meet them.

Steph Curry was excellent against the Mavericks and earned the Western Conference Finals MVP award for his troubles. In the aftermath, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg posed the following question on Friday morning’s edition of Get Up!: “If he adds that Finals MVP, if they win another championship — I think we have all generally, universally considered LeBron James to be the defining player of this generation. Could Steph Curry have something to say about that here?”

Patrick Beverley was among the folks who were tasked with answering that question, and while he said James has set the bar ultra high, he thinks Curry would deserve to be in that conversation.

“I believe so,” Beverley said about Curry’s case as the defining player of this era if he goes on to add to his trophy case. “And that’s not to discredit, obviously, what LeBron has done in the league, and what he’s still doing, and his legacy. He set the bar extremely high.

“But you’ve got to give Steph Curry a lot of credit, man, he’s 6’1, 25-5-5 average in the playoffs, shooting over 43 percent, back to the chip again, six out of eight times,” Beverley continued. “His resume, scoring titles, most three-pointers hit ever, his resume is elite, so you have to put him up there.”

Vince Carter pushed back a bit on Curry needing a Finals MVP due to the circumstances under which the distinction was given in 2015 (Andre Iguodala) and during their other two title wins — Kevin Durant got it, but Carter argued “Steph took a back seat to KD to allow him to be the KD they needed to win back-to-back years.”

“We, on the outside, felt like, ‘Man, he deserved that trophy as well,’ but he’s an unselfish superstar and it was about empowering everybody else and making sure everybody else is able to do their job to be great to win championships,” Carter said. “So I think if they’re able to pull this off and win these four games, he will hold that trophy. And it’s not disrespecting LeBron, I think now you’re saying Steph needs to be talked about for this era and generation like we do LeBron James.”

The entire conversation caught the attention of Draymond Green, who praised Beverley and added his take on Curry’s place in this conversation.

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By: Bill DiFilippo
Title: Patrick Beverley Laid Out How Steph Can Pass LeBron James As The Defining Player Of This Generation
Sourced From: uproxx.com/dimemag/patrick-beverley-steph-curry-defining-player-generation-lebron-james-video/
Published Date: Fri, 27 May 2022 09:04:04 PDT