The legendary Kobe Bryant is someone that has come up several times during this playoff run and especially in the Finals. The Mamba was a huge inspiration to Boston Celtics man Jayson Tatum, who paid tribute to him in multiple ways during the run, but now that everything is over, it seems Steph Curry was the one emulating Kobe more than anyone else.
Curry is someone that had been questioned despite winning 3 NBA championships and multiple MVPs in his career before this thanks to having Kevin Durant on his team for 2 of those championships. His critics suggested that Curry couldn’t be the main man when it matters the most, something he proved them wrong about against the Boston Celtics. And he did so despite not being as young as he once was, in a manner that was very reminiscent of Bryant winning his 4th title in 2009.
For both Bryant and Curry, their 4th championship was the first time they were named Finals MVP. Both had won 3 before and were knocked for being upstaged by other superstars during the Finals. But the similarities don’t stop there. Both Kobe and Curry did this in their 13th season in the NBA.
Not just that, but both won the All-Star Game MVP during the same season, which is becoming an odd trend in the modern NBA but is still quite the coincidence. On top of this, Curry clinched the series in Boston while the Celtics had homecourt advantage, similar to Kobe winning it in Orlando in 2009.
There aren’t too many similarities between their styles, so this isn’t a comparison that gets made often, but there’s no denying that these runs have shared a lot of similarities. Steph is a bona fide superstar that has shown he can do it as the most important player on his team, and if he can emulate Kobe and do it again next season, that would possibly make him an undisputed Top 10 player of all time, maybe even Top 5.
