When you are rooting for a team and they are making a playoff run there are always the players that you start hoping won’t come up in a big situation. It’s a feeling of impending doom. I feel like anytime the Red Sox had any sort of chance Derek Jeter would loop a double down the rightfield line. Or Jorge Posada would dink a broken-bat single just past the infield. With the Patriots it was fucking Eli Manning. Against 30 other teams, he was a so-so QB being carried by his running game and defense. Against the Patriots he was Joe Montana. I’m not old enough to have seen the Bad Boy Pistons or Magic and the Lakers. For me, I couldn’t stand the Celtics having to go up against Jason Kidd, Kobe, or Lebron.
This might be recency bias but I can’t recall as much dread as I have when Steph Curry shoots the ball. Simply shoots it. I am convinced that every shot is going in. His misses look good. If he has a sliver of space I am worried he is going to get a shot off. He is the great equalizer in this Finals series.
As a huge homer, I believe the Celtics have the better team. I think their size, their wing depth, and playmaking, from their regular rotation guys, is better than Golden State. But, every game is close with Curry’s shooting. I have watched him like everyone else since the Warriors started to become a thing in the mid-2010s. The difference this time is I am rooting against him at the highest stakes the NBA has to offer. This makes the viewing experience equal parts enthralling and vomit-inducing.
This is what the NBA has been dealing with since about the 2013-2014 season. Now I can finally sympathize with fans of Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Clippers fans (this distinction for LA fans is important), Memphis, Portland, and Cleveland. It is horrible to watch your favorite team try and stop Curry knowing the whole time that it isn’t possible. He is going to hit his shots, tap his chest and point to the sky and all you can do is watch it happen.
But Curry isn’t quite in the same class as Jeter, A-Rod, Bernie Williams, Mo Rivera, Posada, the 2017 Astros, Peyton + Eli, the Rex Ryan Jets, Lebron, Kidd, and Kobe. The reason is I LOVE watching Curry play. I understand the greatness and ability of all those players I just listed but I never liked them. I guess I like Peyton Manning now, but not when he was playing. (The United Way sketch went a long way for our relationship) As for Curry, I watch as many Warriors games as I can catch. Any game he can go off for 15 threes and you have to watch. When he has a hot quarter you cannot leave that game. You have to see if it will be a 50 or 60-point game. Maybe he sets another three-point record of some sort but you are not leaving. That’s what makes this finals series so brutal. Couldn’t it just be a villain that we can all get behind and dislike? Why does it have to be such a likable, exciting player?
After this series whether the Celtics win or lose I will still like Curry. That has never been the case for me. Even as a grown-ass 33-year-old man. I still hold grudges against those that eliminate my favorite team. At this point, I don’t think that will ever change. This feels different. This is the best shooter ever doing what he does and you cannot hate him for it. He is the outlier.
With all this said I hope he goes on the coldest shooting streak of his career over the next few games. I know that is never going to happen but a guy can hope, right?
Photo by Mark Blinch
The Never Weres 
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