Nick Young has dished out some wild basketball takes over the years but his most recent one might be the wildest of the lot. Young took to X to state that Kyrie Irving is better than Stephen Curry and claimed people are just scared to admit it.
“Kyrie is the Kobe to curry mj ppl scared to say he’s better.”
Kyrie is the Kobe to curry mj ppl scared to say he’s better .. 👀
— Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung) August 26, 2024
Young also seems to indicate, that people are afraid to admit that Kobe Bryant was better than Michael Jordan. In my opinion, there really isn’t a case to be made for Bryant or Irving in those respective debates.
We’ll focus on Curry and Kyrie here, and down below are their career stats and accomplishments.
Stephen Curry’s career stats: 24.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game
Kyrie Irving’s career stats: 23.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game
Stephen Curry’s accomplishments: 4x NBA Champion, 1x Finals MVP, 2x MVP, 10x All-Star, 4x All-NBA First Team, 4x All-NBA Second Team, 2x All-NBA Third Team, 2x Scoring Champion, 1x Steals leader
Kyrie Irving’s accomplishments: 1x NBA Champion, 8x All-Star, 1x All-NBA Second Team, 2x All-NBA Third Team, Rookie of the Year
I think that makes it fairly clear who the better player is. While the gap between the two isn’t enormous when it comes to career averages, it is huge when you look at their accomplishments, both on an individual and team level.
Curry has won three more titles, one more Finals MVP, two more MVPs, and two more scoring titles than Irving. In fact, the Dallas Mavericks guard has not led the league in any statistical category in his career and has never even received an MVP vote.
There is no denying that Irving has been one of the better guards in the NBA over the last 10 years or so, but he hasn’t been better than Curry. That was on full display in the 2022 NBA playoffs as well. That year, both Irving and Curry played the Boston Celtics in the postseason and to say the latter fared far better might be an understatement.
Kyrie and the Brooklyn Nets faced the Celtics in the first round and were swept 4-0. While Kevin Durant bore much of the blame for it, his co-star didn’t play all that well either. Irving averaged 21.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 44.4% from the field and 38.1% from beyond the arc.
After dispatching the Nets, the Celtics would eventually make it all the way to the NBA Finals, where they faced Curry and the Golden State Warriors. The superstar guard light work of that vaunted Boston defense in the Finals, averaging 31.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game in the series.
Curry was also quite efficient, shooting 48.2% from the field and 43.7% from beyond the arc. The Warriors would win the series in six games and Curry was named Finals MVP for his efforts.
I’d like to think all of that makes it pretty obvious who is the better player among Curry and Irving. It’s fair to say that the latter is better when it comes to ball handling and finishing at the rim, but those are about the only aspects of the game where he has the advantage.
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