Stephen Curry just finished a season where he won his 4th NBA championship and his first Finals MVP. Topping off a magical campaign for the Golden State Warriors, demonstrating why he’s one of the best players in the world right now, Steph proved that he’s nearly unstoppable when inspired.
The Boston Celtics had a terrific defense entering the 2022 NBA Finals, but that didn’t matter to Steph, who unleashed all his power, recorded incredible performances, and led his squad to return from a 2-1 deficit to win the Larry O’Brien trophy for the fourth time in seven years.
After another dominant performance from Curry, many people have wondered if he can be stopped. He will have bad games like anybody else, but once he gets things going, it’s really hard to bother Curry. Reggie Miller was recently asked this question, and he came up with one of the most intense defenders in NBA history.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see these duels on the court, but the Indiana Pacers selected Scottie Pippen as that player that would stop Steph if they go at it. Talking on The Dan Patrick Show, Miller had this to say (via Sportscasting):
Any wing defender all-time… who would give Steph Curry the most trouble? Reggie Miller (@ReggieMillerTNT) explains why he'd go with @ScottiePippen.
For Reggie's full appearance: https://t.co/nS1k5R8yj8 pic.twitter.com/O9PerOVzbh
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) June 13, 2022
Probably Scottie Pippen. I would go with Scottie. Because if you go back in those series where he won [NBA championships] — twice against Utah — it was his defense on John Stockton. They were going to take the point guard out. The series versus us in the Conference Finals, Phil Jackson said, “take Mark Jackson out.” It’s like he goes to the head of the snake. If you can take him out, that’s going to disrupt the rest of their offense. I think they would put Scottie on Curry and have that length really disrupt him.
Naturally, Miller was asked about Michael Jordan, another good defender of the 90s, but Reggie said that he could get past MJ and Curry would do too.
“As much as I love Michael Jordan, I was giving buckets to Michael Jordan!” the legendary sharpshooter said.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to watch Curry going against Pippen on the court since they belong to different eras. The Chicago Bulls of the 90s have been pitted against the Golden State Warriors of the last decade in several debates trying to define which one is the better team.
If these two would have clashed, now we know that Pippen would have taken the job of guarding Stephen Curry, which would have been an incredible duel to see.
