Stephen Curry had a magical 2022-23 NBA season where he led the Golden State Warriors to a new championship following a campaign full of ups and downs. The talented point guard played great at the beginning, even becoming an MVP candidate until his shooting slump showed up.
Fortunately, Curry picked things up and bounced back, leading the Golden State Warriors to their sixth NBA Finals in eight years, winning his fourth championship in the process.
Stephen Curry Didn’t Make It To ESPN’s Top NBA 3 Players
ESPN released the last five spots of his top 100 players list for the 2022-23 season, placing Giannis Antetokounmpo atop of everybody, followed by back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid and Stephen Curry. Curry’s position raised many eyebrows around the league, with fans calling out the experts for this decision.
Still, there’s nothing they can do to change this decision. ESPN explained this decision, recalling everything that happened to Curry last year.
Curry finally got the Finals MVP award he longed for since his first title in 2015, cementing his legacy as a top 10 player of all time. However, this doesn’t seem to be enough for some people who keep overlooking him on rankings.
If a Finals MVP was the piece of hardware missing from Curry’s argument as one of the all-time greats, that’s now taken care of, as Steph led the Warriors to their fourth title in six years en route to earning the elusive accolade. Sources told ESPN that, heading into training camp, Curry is looking in shape and primed to pick up where he left off.
Why his ranking was unchanged
Curry is in the same position he was in at the start of last season. After averaging 25.5 points per game on 43.7% shooting, Curry by no means had a subpar season — he was an early contender for MVP — but an ankle injury did keep him off the floor for the last month of the regular season. In his absence, his teammates stepped up and kept the Warriors afloat to secure the West’s No. 3 seed. Perhaps that — in addition to the rise of the MVP contenders below — is the reason he’s in the same spot in our rankings.
Curry is always trying to find reasons to get better, and this disrespect won’t be overlooked by him. Be ready to see another appearance by the self-proclaimed ‘petty King’ next season after being ranked lower than two players he dominated in the 2022 NBA playoffs and three more that couldn’t reach the stages he reached.
