In 2015, former Warriors head coach Mark Jackson made waves with his theory that Stephen Curry’s incredible 3-point shooting is bad for the game of basketball as a whole.
“I’ve thought about this one,” Jackson began. “Steph Curry’s great. Steph Curry’s the MVP. He’s a champion. Understand what I’m saying when I say this. To a degree, he’s hurt the game. And what I mean by that is, I go into high school gyms, I watch these kids, and the first thing they do is run to the 3-point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of the game. People think that he’s just a knock-down shooter. That’s not why he’s the MVP. He’s a complete basketball player.”
Jackson was widely criticized for the comments, especially because some took them as a shot at the team that replaced him with Steve Kerr — and then immediately won an NBA title — just two years prior.
Kevin Durant referenced those comments during his postgame presser on Wednesday, after Curry had an absolutely wild showing in the third quarter of the Warriors’ 147-140 win over the Pelicans. Durant explained how moments like Steph going 7-for-8 from deep in one quarter make him understand where Jackson was coming from.
“When Mark Jackson said ‘(Steph) was ruining the game,’ I know a lot of people took that personal,” Durant said. “But I kind of got it a little bit because he’s the only person that I’ve ever seen that can shoot those shots in rhythm like that and make them. And now everybody else thinks they can, and you can’t, you know what I’m saying? And that’s why I shake my head because he’s a once in a generation, once in a lifetime type of talent, and his movements out there are just so smooth and he makes it look so easy. When he’s knocking down those shots it’s just a joy to see.”
Curry finished with 41 points, while going 9-of-17 from 3-point range. Curry has now gone 28-of-49 from deep in his last three games. It’s the first time in NBA history a player has made at least eight threes in three consecutive games.