Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry is widely recognized as one of the greatest players in modern NBA history, but his resume lacked a key accolade that did not go unnoticed by critics: a Finals MVP. In a recent interview with CCTV, Curry explained how he felt in 2018, when he lost out on the award to his teammate, Kevin Durant, for the second straight year.
“The idea of that being a conversation, I couldn’t run from it. We had been to four straight Finals at that point, and had won three out of four. I was close. I had a bad Game 3, and KD played unbelievable the entire time,” Curry said.
Steph went on to explain how winning Finals MVP was always in the back of his mind, but he never let it get in the way of his ultimate mission of winning championships. Even in 2018, when he was on his fourth Finals appearance run in a row, he always kept his focus on the final score, not the votes for Finals MVP.
“It goes into the conversation in the sense of, in that moment, if you’re playing for a Finals MVP, you’re probably not gonna get it done because you’re getting distracted and playing to sabotage yourself a little bit,” said Steph. “In 2018, I got close to thinking about it, but I’d rather have rings and the opportunity to get rings. But KD’s two are beyond well-deserved.”
Curry won back-to-back MVPs in 2015 and 2016, even becoming the NBA’s first unanimous winner at 28 years old. In the Finals, however, he missed out on MVP honors. The first time, it was Andre Iguodala who won the award, mostly for his defense in the series, which helped contain LeBron James. Impressively, Iguodala was the first player to win the award without starting every game of the series.
Since the Warriors lost in 2016, Finals MVP went to LeBron James, who led the Cavaliers on an emotional and historic comeback from down 3-1. He averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, and 8.9 assists, leading all players in the series in all three categories.
The Warriors did make the Finals again in 2017, but things were different with Kevin Durant on board. While Steph was arguably their most important player, Durant’s performance earned him the nod with averages of 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 5.4 assists.
Finally, there’s the 2018 Finals, which saw Curry with his best odds yet of winning Finals MVP. The Warriors cruised through the playoffs and swept the Cavaliers in four games. With averages of 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.5 assists, it was enough for Durant to surpass Curry again, even though he later admitted that he was trying to help Curry win it.
It wasn’t until 2022 that Steph finally broke the seal and secured his first Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy. Without Durant, there was nobody to take Steph’s spotlight, and he shone in the series with averages of 31.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.0 assists per game.
Still, even in the year he won, capturing the Finals MVP trophy was never his ultimate goal. While other superstars might have tried to play selfishly to pad their resume, Steph only wants to win, and he did whatever he had to in order to lead his team to victory. The results speak for themselves. As a 4x champion, 2x MVP, and 11x All-NBA player, Steph is a legend in the NBA, and his selfless, passionate, and focused approach to the game will always be a part of his iconic legacy.
