Nash marvels at Curry's wizardry: Arthur
Stephen Curry and the unbeaten Warriors visit the Raptors Saturday, and Canadian hoops great Steve Nash has played a role in the NBA champions' magical ride.
By Bruce ArthurSports Columnist
Fri., Dec. 4, 2015timer5 min. read
updateArticle was updated Dec. 05, 2015
Steve Nash wonders, in both senses of the word. He has spent some time around the Golden State Warriors this season as an instructor, but he hasn't spent a lot of time with Stephen Curry. They've spoken, talked about a few things, on and off the court, but Nash doesn't want there to be any mistake.
"I would cringe if I got any credit for what he's doing," says the two-time MVP, on the phone from Los Angeles.
But the Victoria, B.C. native watches Curry play and, like the rest of us, has difficulty finding words to describe what's happening. Curry is doing more than lighting up highlight shows, animating Vines and laying waste to the NBA one year after winning a title and the MVP as a significantly lesser player. Curry is going places no basketball player has ever gone, and it almost looks inevitable.
"It looks easy, but the shots he takes are insane," says Nash. "The speed, range, dexterity, going left, going right, leaning, fading. It feels like the possibilities are limitless. I feel like I could shoot the ball in as wide an array of ways as anybody, but he's been able to do it with more range and more speed. It's remarkable. It's the evolution of the game. I don't think we've ever seen anybody be able to do this."
Curry comes to Toronto Saturday as a circus. The seventh-year point guard has become the best show in sports, the most joyful player since Magic Johnson, and it starts with his peerless ability to shoot the basketball. His own league record for three-pointers in a season is 286. That broke his own record, set two years ago, of 272. He is on pace for 418.
Just eight players have shot .500 from the field, .400 from three-point range, and .900 from the line in a season; Larry Bird did it twice, and Nash four times. Curry is shooting .524/.459/.943 while taking more shots, harder shots, longer shots. He is letting three-pointers fly through closing subway doors, over flailing giants, from the outer reaches of the NBA galaxy. Sometimes he, or a teammate, is walking back before the ball lands. Basketball is, as much as any sport, an evolutionary game.
"It's a leap," says Nash. "When you take all factors in, even without the accuracy, just to be able to take those shots at an acceptable rate is itself an evolution. We've had a lot of gunslingers, a lot of volume shooters. but to take the shots he takes, even without the accuracy, is a revolution. And then, the accuracy: it's remarkable."
The evolution came from Nash, partly — the way he played, the way he manipulated defences with his shooting and passing and ballhandling and brain, helped form Curry. Nash was probably the greatest shooter in NBA history before Curry — he missed two more 50-40-90 seasons by a total of one free throw and two field goals, respectively — but he doesn't think he could ever have played the way Curry does.
"I didn't have a Steph to say, that's possible," says Nash. "I couldn't do that. I think some kids watched me and said, I can take shots off one leg, I can pass with both hands. But for me, what I was in — you're a part of the evolution of the game. And where I was, (John) Stockton was brilliant, but he was very conservative. Magic wasn't a small guard, trying to find space. Jason Kidd wasn't a small guard, trying to find space. Gary Payton wasn't, either.
"Early in my career, I didn't even like to shoot. Different coaches had been imploring me to shoot, but you know, I'm a people pleaser. My mentality was, if I had a tough shot I would take it in the fourth quarter. I think Steph says, I make shots. So he's constantly pushed the envelope of what kind of shots he can take.
"It's almost like I didn't know what Steph is doing was possible. Because I'd never seen it. He's taken the things that those ahead of him did, and expanded on them at a rate that's unbelievable. Some of the shots he takes, 10 or 20 years ago you would have said, what is he doing? I think he's the most skilled player we've ever had, as far as all-around skill."
Nash has watched Curry in drills and thinks maybe Ray Allen could shoot at the same pure repeatable clip in practice, but that "Steph can shoot it off the dribble as well as Ray Allen could catch and shoot. He can do it in traffic."
Nash loves something else about watching Curry, too. Like Nash, Curry was barely a scholarship prospect. Like Nash, he went to a small school. Like Nash, people wondered if he could survive in the NBA — was he big enough, strong enough, athletic enough and in Curry's case, could he be a point guard?
"I see the journey," says Nash.
Nash looks at Curry and sees a player whose legs have gotten so much stronger, which helped his troublesome ankles, his balance, his ability to create space and get to spots. He sees the growing confidence and determination. He sees a young man whose feet are underneath him, even when they're not.
"When you shoot from distance, or off-balance, you still have a rhythm, so there's still a push into the floor, your body going up with energy, and releasing the ball with that energy," says Nash. "He's a joy to watch, and especially given the path he's come."
Nash is busy now: a TV idea in development at the CBC, his three children, a post-playing life. He only takes time to watch Canadian basketball players and the Warriors, when he can. And when Nash watches Curry, he wonders. He wonders at Curry's sheer electric hallelujah genius, like the rest of us, basking in the pure surreal glory of it, expressed out loud. And he wonders, if he was a kid now, what he would see. "I wish I was 13, starting out," he says, "so I could emulate him."
Correction – December 5, 2015: This story has been edited from a previous version that misstated the number of times Nash shot .500 from the field.