Meet the original Steph Curry (Mahmoud Abdul Rauf)

[hoosierdaddy34]

Nowhere near as good as Steph. Guy gets more overrated every year. 35% career three point shooter.

If you were aware of your basketball history, you’d know he weighed like 145 lbs in the hand checking/holding era of defense. He just got held all over the court...it wasn’t like anyone could actually stay with him.

He’d go nuts under today’s rules. He just played in the wrong era for his style.

[LibertyPrime]

I watched that Bulls game live on WGN. It was just amazing, especially in the middle of that insane season they were having. McDyess, Mutumbo, Phonz were such a devastating front court (when injuries weren't devastating them) but Abdul Rauf was just crazy unconscious at the time. (The problem with him is that he kept shooting, even when he wasn't hitting like that. Cultivating more PG skills would have kept him in the league, but he was basically an undersized SG.) One would think there would be some way to make an Abdul-Rauf/Jaylen Rose backcourt and that frontcourt work, but something kept them from coming together and being world-beaters like they should have been.

[Fantastik_Goat]

Besides the fact that Rauf simply was nowhere near as good a shooter as Steph, the other aspect was that he wasn't nearly as good a PG. He didn't make guys around him better. He also wasn't nearly as good

And he wasn't as good as a teammate. I'm sure the religion/anthem/what he experienced growing up stuff had a lot to do with it, but reports were that he wasn't on friendly terms with a lot of his teammates and was distant from them. Curry's quiet leadership and ability to make everyone feel welcome within the organization is the most underrated aspects about him as a franchise player.

As a player, Mike Bibby is a better comparison to Steph. Bibby was very effective playing off the ball, much like Steph.

Kevin Durant just left the warriors because he didn’t feel welcome.

[dc]

Besides the fact that Rauf simply was nowhere near as good a shooter as Steph, the other aspect was that he wasn't nearly as good a PG. He didn't make guys around him better. He also wasn't nearly as good

And he wasn't as good as a teammate. I'm sure the religion/anthem/what he experienced growing up stuff had a lot to do with it, but reports were that he wasn't on friendly terms with a lot of his teammates and was distant from them. Curry's quiet leadership and ability to make everyone feel welcome within the organization is the most underrated aspects about him as a franchise player.

As a player, Mike Bibby is a better comparison to Steph. Bibby was very effective playing off the ball, much like Steph.

Kevin Durant just left the warriors because he didn’t feel welcome.

Durant didn't felt unwelcome by Curry or the Warriors.

He felt unaccepted by the MEDIA and fans of other teams as a member of the Warriors. He felt his accomplishments were not recognized and respected outside of the Bay Area. Durant himself said as much.

For example, it was reported that after the 2017 Finals, Durant was really bothered by the fact that (despite winning the Title and Finals MVP) people still considered Lebron the best player in the Finals and in the league.

There's not really a lot Curry or anyone else in the Warriors organization could do about fan sentiment around the league. That's completely out of their control.

[IAMZOOTED2]

Abdul Rauf is a 35% three point shooter for his career ...just saying ..J Kid is a 35% for comparison.

It's all about volume, my dude

[RUN T M C]

Besides the fact that Rauf simply was nowhere near as good a shooter as Steph, the other aspect was that he wasn't nearly as good a PG. He didn't make guys around him better. He also wasn't nearly as good

And he wasn't as good as a teammate. I'm sure the religion/anthem/what he experienced growing up stuff had a lot to do with it, but reports were that he wasn't on friendly terms with a lot of his teammates and was distant from them. Curry's quiet leadership and ability to make everyone feel welcome within the organization is the most underrated aspects about him as a franchise player.

As a player, Mike Bibby is a better comparison to Steph. Bibby was very effective playing off the ball, much like Steph.

Kevin Durant just left the warriors because he didn’t feel welcome.

Kevin Durant didn't feel welcome. Thats on Him. Curry and the rest of the Warriors (Maybe not Draymond as much) welcomed him openly. Dont twist the words around.

[Danny1616]

Abdul Rauf is a 35% three point shooter for his career ...just saying ..J Kid is a 35% for comparison.

It's all about volume, my dude

And that's why Curry is a phenom.

The dude shot 45% 3 while taking a crazy volume and many contested shots.

[dho4ever]

Abdul Rauf is a 35% three point shooter for his career ...just saying ..J Kid is a 35% for comparison.

That's not an honest comparison because of era. 3 point shooting wasn't as encouraged. Mahmoud averaged 2.3 attempts per game in his career. game plans also weren't set up for him to take 3s whereas the entire warrior offense is designed to get an open shooter.

[IAMZOOTED2]

Abdul Rauf is a 35% three point shooter for his career ...just saying ..J Kid is a 35% for comparison.

It's all about volume, my dude

And that's why Curry is a phenom.

The dude shot 45% 3 while taking a crazy volume and many contested shots.

Agree completely. Steph been water from deep forever now...

[Fantastik_Goat]

Besides the fact that Rauf simply was nowhere near as good a shooter as Steph, the other aspect was that he wasn't nearly as good a PG. He didn't make guys around him better. He also wasn't nearly as good

And he wasn't as good as a teammate. I'm sure the religion/anthem/what he experienced growing up stuff had a lot to do with it, but reports were that he wasn't on friendly terms with a lot of his teammates and was distant from them. Curry's quiet leadership and ability to make everyone feel welcome within the organization is the most underrated aspects about him as a franchise player.

As a player, Mike Bibby is a better comparison to Steph. Bibby was very effective playing off the ball, much like Steph.

Kevin Durant just left the warriors because he didn’t feel welcome.

Kevin Durant didn't feel welcome. Thats on Him. Curry and the rest of the Warriors (Maybe not Draymond as much) welcomed him openly. Dont twist the words around.

Who’s twisting words around? He said Steph has the ability to “make everyone feel welcome” and Durant didn’t feel welcome, so Curry didn’t “make” him feel welcome. So, Curry has quite leadership and ability to allow teammates to feel welcome, but if they don’t its on them. Cool

[dc]

Who’s twisting words around? He said Steph has the ability to “make everyone feel welcome” and Durant didn’t feel welcome, so Curry didn’t “make” him feel welcome. So, Curry has quite leadership and ability to allow teammates to feel welcome, but if they don’t its on them. Cool

To repeat, Durant felt more than welcome by the Warriors. That wasn't the issue. The issue is that merely feeling welcomed by the Warriors wasn't enough for him.

He wanted to feel ACCEPTED by the fans (outside the bay area) and media as a member of the Warriors. The media/fan narrative was that it wasn't his team and he was merely a hired gun to get past Lebron in the Finals. That's what got to him.

To put it another way, Durant didn't leave OKC because he didn't feel welcome there. They did everything they could to accommodate him and make him feel like a king. He left for other reasons. Sometimes, making a player feel welcome isn't enough to keep him.

[The_Hater]

Abdul Rauf is closer to Damian Lillard.

Phil Jackson's comments comparing him to Steph were a compliment though. Abdul Rauf inflicted one of the more memorable losses the Jordan Bulls suffered during their 72-win season. That's why Phil remembers. It's also evidence that Curry would wreak havoc back in the 90s.

He wasn’t even close to Lillard either.

Abdul Rauf’s biggest problem was he has a terrible Bball IQ. He never saw his teammates. He never passed the ball. He took terrible shots. Heck at LSU he averaged 28 ppg and only 3 apg when he has Shaquille O’Neal and Stanley Roberts at the big spots. They averaged 14 ppg each and they were the most disappointing team in college basketball. Shaq averaged 27 ppg the next season after Rauf left.

The reason he didn’t have a successful career was he just didn’t know how to play. Mark Price was also a long range shooter from that era and was a significantly smarter and superior player.

[NPZ]

He is also the original Colin Kaepernick, unfortunately. Not enough attention is given to why he couldn't get another gig in the NBA.

Wanna know why? Because 3 months after 9/11, the idiot was on camera saying that it was the US Govt who were the perps and it couldn't have been Muslims. I remember watching that interview on Real Sports HBO at a motel room on a business trip in which I had to buy razor heads after the flight because any sharps were still iffy at airports. The 19 Saudis were patsies the govt came up with, he said. Stupid thing to say when you were already well-aged and wanted a return to the NBA. He's not Colin K. You have to put yourself back in Dec 2001 and remember the feelings that close to 9/11. Still waaaay too soon. At that point, he was legitimately understandably radioactive to "owners".

The anthem thing I didn't give 2 craps about at the time. Within his rights and I'm not personally an anthemy/flaggy guy. And as white as Denver was, the great majority of them let him do his thing. I reckon the Nugg's FO and "owner" probably disliked the media attention and distraction quality of the gesture more than the gesture itself. Dunno on that point, Nuggs "owner" may have been one of them GOP "patriot" types. Maybe a 40 yr old Nuggs fan can clarify.

I've never looked at Steph and thought Mahmoud either. MAR could get very hot, but he was kind of erratic. I remember a couple DEN/LAL games where he torched them, but there were others where he was invisible. But when he was hot, he was hot, no denying that. That's the only thing in which he compares favorably to Curry.

[og15]

It's a very, very loose comparison based on some style similarities, but really nothing else. Abdul Rauf just didn't have the 3PT range, didn't have the level of IQ, didn't have anything close to the level of scoring ability, but he was an excellent shooter outside of 3PT and he could get by people at will.

Nowhere near as good as Steph. Guy gets more overrated every year. 35% career three point shooter.

If you were aware of your basketball history, you’d know he weighed like 145 lbs in the hand checking/holding era of defense. He just got held all over the court...it wasn’t like anyone could actually stay with him.

He’d go nuts under today’s rules. He just played in the wrong era for his style.

I think sometimes we forget about the shortened line seasons. Mahmoud only shot anything impressive from 3PT during the shortened seasons. Outside of those seasons, his 3PT shooting was not significant or good. He would be fine under today's rules, but he wouldn't "go nuts" when he wouldn't even be a top 15 PG.

Abdul Rauf is a 35% three point shooter for his career ...just saying ..J Kid is a 35% for comparison.

It's all about volume, my dude

Abdul Rauf didn't have the volume, but like I mentioned above, he wasn't a good 3PT shooter at all with the regular line.

In his regular line seasons, he shot 30.9% 3PT.

[Fantastik_Goat]

Who’s twisting words around? He said Steph has the ability to “make everyone feel welcome” and Durant didn’t feel welcome, so Curry didn’t “make” him feel welcome. So, Curry has quite leadership and ability to allow teammates to feel welcome, but if they don’t its on them. Cool

To repeat, Durant felt more than welcome by the Warriors. That wasn't the issue. The issue is that merely feeling welcomed by the Warriors wasn't enough for him.

He wanted to feel ACCEPTED by the fans (outside the bay area) and media as a member of the Warriors. The media/fan narrative was that it wasn't his team and he was merely a hired gun to get past Lebron in the Finals. That's what got to him.

To put it another way, Durant didn't leave OKC because he didn't feel welcome there. They did everything they could to accommodate him and make him feel like a king. He left for other reasons. Sometimes, making a player feel welcome isn't enough to keep him.

Do you two know what words mean? I didn’t twist anybody's words and you didn’t say any of that before, so you are not repeating yourself. I was just pointing out that in your attempt to claim that Steph was a better teammate than Abdul Rauf you claimed he made everyone feel welcome but the only player of any consequence who joined them after there initial success when faced with the choice of stay or go picked go. So unless you have some other insight into Steph Curry’s incredibly welcoming nature I will not accept it as a factor in claiming it makes him better teammate than Abdul Rauf.

[dc]

Do you two know what words mean? I didn’t twist anybody's words and you didn’t say any of that before, so you are not repeating yourself. I was just pointing out that in your attempt to claim that Steph was a better teammate than Abdul Rauf you claimed he made everyone feel welcome but the only player of any consequence who joined them after there initial success when faced with the choice of stay or go picked go. So unless you have some other insight into Steph Curry’s incredibly welcoming nature I will not accept it as a factor in claiming it makes him better teammate than Abdul Rauf.

If we're merely doing comparisons, Curry was a better teammate than Rauf. Haven't heard anything like this from Curry:

He bitched. About not getting enough playing time. About not getting the ball. Moody and aloof, he didn’t hang with teammates. And, in the midst of it all, he converted to Islam, becoming Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.

Meanwhile, Abdul-Rauf’s faith drove a wedge between him and the team. He refused to shower naked with his teammates because of an Islamic tenet demanding modesty. He wanted a separate room to pray.

https://www.5280.com/2007/10/the-conversion-of-chris-jackson/

And I mentioned that earlier that the religion/protest angle were contributing factors, but all accounts were that Rauf was not the cool teammate to hang out with. For sure, he was a more complicated guy in a more complicated situation, but by all accounts he was a harder guy to be around as a teammate.


As another example, I don't happen to know Tim Duncan personally and never hung out with the guy, but I'm willing to bet that he (like Curry) was a better teammate than Rauf.

[brutalitops]

an inconsistent Curry then yeah. Abdul Rauf balled in the wrong Era.

[MrBigShot]

He was more like Ben Gordon than Steph, albeit not as good a shooter as BG was.

[Joerezz7]

Abdul Rauf is closer to Damian Lillard.

Phil Jackson's comments comparing him to Steph were a compliment though. Abdul Rauf inflicted one of the more memorable losses the Jordan Bulls suffered during their 72-win season. That's why Phil remembers. It's also evidence that Curry would wreak havoc back in the 90s.

Teams were playing way more physical and hand check was legal. Curry wouldn’t have the same impact in the 90s

[DrWood]

Isn't Del Curry the original Seth Curry?