It’s been a week since the Golden State Warriors won the 2022 NBA championship by beating the Boston Celtics 4-2 in the Finals. Warriors’ talisman Stephen Curry was clearly the best player on the court in the series. In tightly contested matches, it was often Curry who ended up scoring more than 30 points in a game and keeping the Dubs’ offense on par with the Celtics.
Even in the last game of the series, Curry led Golden State to the win with a fantastic 34-point performance and while he hadn’t won the Finals MVP trophy in three prior championships, he deservedly won his first-ever Finals MVP crown.
With this win, though, Curry also joined another legendary list. Sharing the stage with the likes of Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant, Curry became the third player in NBA history to win multiple NBA championships without a top 75 teammate.
Players to win multiple Championships without a top 75 teammate:
— Tim Duncan
— Kobe Bryant
— Steph Curry
End of list.
via @GoIdenState pic.twitter.com/Ud2vzpIhlj
— CurryMuse (@Curry_Muse) June 23, 2022
This is certainly an astonishing feat for the ‘Baby Faced Assassin’. In a league where we see superteams often dominating the field, it is rare to see a superstar surrounded by good players who can beat the odds and take home the championship. With his win in 2015 and now in 2022, Curry and the Dubs have proven that a well-rounded team can be successful as well.
This was true for Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan as well. While they did not have top 75 players by their side, they had quality teammates in Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili, to name a few. While these players were not the biggest scorers, they could have thrived as stars in other teams as well.
The case is similar for the Warriors as well. While Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are not in the top 75, it is fair to say that the former would have made it to the list if not for his two missed seasons in the NBA.
After seeing the league being dominated by superteams, it is finally encouraging to see that teams like the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors making a return as champions, teams who do not have the biggest stars of the game rather are well-rounded rosters capable of defeating any team in the league.
