What will it take for you to take Curry over LeBron all-time?

[ropjhk]

No realistic way for me to ever rank Curry ahead of Lebron on the GOAT list for me. It would require Curry to 3peat with all finals MVPs and win more regular season MVPs.

[dickfox]

Well, LeBron is compared to Jordan for GOAT and Curry isn't close to Jordan. So I think you have your answer.

You can argue Curry is close to LeBron this past decade... but LeBron had a Hall of Fame career already before returning to Cleveland.

[Colbinii]

2 more MVP level seasons gets him in the "ring of honor" discussion while 3 really put him in the LeBron tier for me. Possible but unlikely. Lets see what happens!

Two questions:

• Is MVP level = top 5? Would 2021-22 count?

This season is already factored in as a majority of the season has been completed. 2 more seasons would be 2023 and 2024.

• What about Duncan level (assuming he's slightly lower than LeBron)? I feel like Curry/LeBron/Duncan have been the best three players post-Jordan (LeBron best among them) and feel at their bests they were of comparable impact.

This is Ring of Honor level to me.

[ceiling raiser]

2 more MVP level seasons gets him in the "ring of honor" discussion while 3 really put him in the LeBron tier for me. Possible but unlikely. Lets see what happens!

Two questions:

• Is MVP level = top 5? Would 2021-22 count?

This season is already factored in as a majority of the season has been completed. 2 more seasons would be 2023 and 2024.

• What about Duncan level (assuming he's slightly lower than LeBron)? I feel like Curry/LeBron/Duncan have been the best three players post-Jordan (LeBron best among them) and feel at their bests they were of comparable impact.

This is Ring of Honor level to me.

Got it, makes sense. I get your point about 2021-22 being in the books already, just wondering if this level of play would suffice, or if he needs to play at a higher level.

RE:Ring of Honor, I think that's interesting. To me I think I probably go:

Jordan/Russell/LeBron as my top 3 (probably Jordan and Russell a hair higher)

Duncan/Kareem/Garnett as my next three

Hakeem/Shaq/Curry/Magic/Oscar are the remainder of my top 10

If I'm not feeling as high on pre3pt era (though 70sfan is providing a ton of novel footage so I am of this mindset less), maybe Robinson, Bird or Nash fits in here.

[G35]

It sounds like all time scoring point total is the primary metric to be the ATG......

[Colbinii]

Two questions:

• Is MVP level = top 5? Would 2021-22 count?

This season is already factored in as a majority of the season has been completed. 2 more seasons would be 2023 and 2024.

• What about Duncan level (assuming he's slightly lower than LeBron)? I feel like Curry/LeBron/Duncan have been the best three players post-Jordan (LeBron best among them) and feel at their bests they were of comparable impact.

This is Ring of Honor level to me.

Got it, makes sense. I get your point about 2021-22 being in the books already, just wondering if this level of play would suffice, or if he needs to play at a higher level.

RE:Ring of Honor, I think that's interesting. To me I think I probably go:

Jordan/Russell/LeBron as my top 3 (probably Jordan and Russell a hair higher)

Duncan/Kareem/Garnett as my next three

Hakeem/Shaq/Curry/Magic/Oscar are the remainder of my top 10

If I'm not feeling as high on pre3pt era (though 70sfan is providing a ton of novel footage so I am of this mindset less), maybe Robinson, Bird or Nash fits in here.

Magic has essentially 11 prime seasons while Curry is currently at 9. I see Curry as a better RS player and about equal in the post-season [maybe slight edge to Curry].

Give Curry 11 prime seasons and I see Curry ahead of Magic [next year it may be a real debate for me personally].

Magic is sort of my cut-off for Top 10 I believe [Going off the top of my head, not looking at my list].

I'm excited to see what he does. Extremely unique player--most unique in the Top 25.

[donkeylips]

2-3 more rings and mvps

[Doctor MJ]

Incidentally, all the folks saying "It can't happen!" remind me of conversations around 2011 talking about how LeBron's GOAT candidacy was already over.

[PaulieWal]

Incidentally, all the folks saying "It can't happen!" remind me of conversations around 2011 talking about how LeBron's GOAT candidacy was already over.

LeBron was also only 27 in 2011 and played pretty much non stop elite basketball till 2019 when the injury bug caught up to him. Steph is 34, let's see how many years he really has left at his current level.

[kazyv]

i'm surprised at the amount of "the gap is too large voters". a three-peat with 3 fmvps would make it very hard to argue against steph. granted, that is very unlikely at this point, but if it indeed did happen, we'd be looking at 6 championships in the modern era, first threepeat since lakers and basically the same amount of fmvps( we can count iggy's as steph's for the comparison).

[JujitsuFlip]

Incidentally, all the folks saying "It can't happen!" remind me of conversations around 2011 talking about how LeBron's GOAT candidacy was already over.

Steph needs 1 more ring, 2 more RS MVPs, 4 more Finals MVPs, 10 more ASG appearances, 9 more first team All-NBA, 1 more third team All-NBA, 5 more all defense first team, 1 more all defense second team and a ROY just to enter the conversation. Keep in mind, since LBJ is still active, these are moving targets

If you believe a 34 year old can achieve all that before retirement, then it can happen, otherwise...

[a8bil]

The, "he has to have the same awards as LBJ" for Curry to surpass LBJ are a bit non-sensical. Look at the top 10...all of the players got there in different ways. Some, like KAJ, had ridiculously long careers. Others, like Bird or Magic, had relatively short careers. Some jumped into the league right out of high school. Others were 3-4 year college players. The careers are all varied, but there they are in the top 10. Why? Excellence recognized. They were that good. Their level of play was so high compared to the rest of the league, for a sufficiently long time, that labeling them amongst the greatest of all time becomes an "of course" discussion except amongst the most jaded/bitter of fans.

Now, that said, we're talking about comparing all time greats, and I think that the problem Curry has is that LBJ has been in the discussion of who is the greatest current player in the NBA for far longer and against more players than Curry. In fact, Curry can only say that whenever he's been in the discussion, Lebron essentially was in the same discussion. Lebron by contrast was in the discussion against Durant, and before him and assortment of Kobe, Wade, Nowitzki, AI and others. His cred is just deeper than Curry's and unless Curry can stay in the discussion a several more years against the likes of Jokic and Giannis, I just don't see it happening.

To draw a football analogy, LeBron is a bit like Emmitt Smith (or maybe Jim Brown). Sustained excellence for a long period. I would like to think Curry is like Barry Sanders -- a supernova of the game -- and perhaps he gets to that level, but I think he may fall a bit short, like LaDainian Tomlinson. Spectacular, but for a shorter period.

[pace31]

2 more rings and 1 more MVP AT LEAST and that would be taking into account where Lebron sits today.

If Lebron ends in the 40k / 10k / 10k club there's nothing remotely realistic Steph can do.

[Homer38]

It sounds like all time scoring point total is the primary metric to be the ATG......

Just one people before you have mentioned the number of points of Lebron in this thread

[NyKnicks1714]

Incidentally, all the folks saying "It can't happen!" remind me of conversations around 2011 talking about how LeBron's GOAT candidacy was already over.

Big difference though: LeBron was 26 at the time, Curry is 34. A 26-year-old still has ample time to show you new things, do things he hasn't done before. A 34-year old doesn't.

Curry can, and likely will, add to his resume, but he's not going to show you something on the floor that you haven't seen from him before. He is who he is at this point. He shouldn't rise or fall according to anything he does from this point on in his career.

[Doctor MJ]

Incidentally, all the folks saying "It can't happen!" remind me of conversations around 2011 talking about how LeBron's GOAT candidacy was already over.

Steph needs 1 more ring, 2 more RS MVPs, 4 more Finals MVPs, 10 more ASG appearances, 9 more first team All-NBA, 1 more third team All-NBA, 5 more all defense first team, 1 more all defense second team and a ROY just to enter the conversation. Keep in mind, since LBJ is still active, these are moving targets

If you believe a 34 year old can achieve all that before retirement, then it can happen, otherwise...

So, sounds like your GOAT assessment is based almost entirely on the assessments of other people.
For the record, my GOAT assessment is about my own assessments.

[Doctor MJ]

Incidentally, all the folks saying "It can't happen!" remind me of conversations around 2011 talking about how LeBron's GOAT candidacy was already over.

Big difference though: LeBron was 26 at the time, Curry is 34. A 26-year-old still has ample time to show you new things, do things he hasn't done before. A 34-year old doesn't.

Curry can, and likely will, add to his resume, but he's not going to show you something on the floor that you haven't seen from him before. He is who he is at this point. He shouldn't rise or fall according to anything he does from this point on in his career.

So you believe that whether Curry puts in years more of effort allowing the Warriors to win more championships, or he goes out there and physically assaults his own teammates to undermine them for the rest of his career, it doesn't matter.

For the record, I think it does matter.

[Doctor MJ]

It sounds like all time scoring point total is the primary metric to be the ATG......

Indeed, and I suppose that's why everyone agrees Kareem is the GOAT and they laugh off the notion that Jordan would be in the conversation.

[Asianiac_24]

2 more MVPs and scandal that LeBron has been taking steroids over the past decade. The gap is too large

[loserX]

He would have to prove that he is a better basketball player. And as legendary as Curry is, I don't see how he does that at this point.