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Now that the NBA All-Star Weekend is in the rear-view mirror and the world is getting back to normal, we can now reflect on the best fact from Sunday's compacted slate of primetime events that particularly involves Stephen Curry:
Steph the Chef is back, y'all. And his cooking is as good as ever.
Forget the fact that he is dragging a depleted Golden State Warriors team kicking and screaming to a record over .500 (19-18 counts, dammit), forget that he is once again at the top of the NBA mountain in 3's with 196 going into the All-Star break and that he is singlehandedly maintaining the relevance of Draymond Green, Kelly Oubre, Jr., and Andrew Wiggins while managing to be the only Warrior this season with a PER over 15 and a box plus-minus over 1 aside from *checks Basketball Reference* Jordan Poole (cue deep eye roll). Forget all of that, we can argue that another time, in another place.
More importantly than anything else, Stephen Curry is making the NBA fun again. And it's infectious.
The irrational (rational?) confidence, the no-look 3's, the shimmies, the charming, twinkling smirk that made the Chef a household name, is back. And in a league that seems to have forgotten him, it is a breath of fresh air that fans have not gotten to enjoy in over a year.
Look at the greats that are currently in the NBA: LeBron James will always carry the burden of chasing the ghost in Chicago. Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook are angry at everyone. Kyrie Irving has his conspiracies and walking stick, and Kevin Durant is probably on his twentieth burner account by now. Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks are well below .500, the Boston Celtics are disappointing, the LA Clippers are excellent but wildly annoying, and the Utah Jazz continue to be excellent and boring (don't pretend you didn't agree with everything LeBron said during the All-Star draft).
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Enter the Chef. As brilliant as recent shooting savants have been, they've all been as workmanlike as the next. And as soon as Stephen Curry stepped onto the court for Sunday night's Three-Point Contest, we got reminded of how loose he is, how much fun he has. And in a display of loveable arrogance not seen since Larry Bird, Steph didn't even bother to tuck his jersey in (or jump?) on his way to torch the rest of the field in the contest's first round, and then come back, jersey still blatantly untucked, to pull out a storybook, come-from-behind, last-shot win over Mike Conley in the final round.
Carry the vibe over to the All-Star Game itself, and Stephen Curry is dropping no-look and logo 3's like they are layups. All the while, holding his poses, knowing his shots are probably going in, shimmying and smirking his way up and down the court with a charm you can't help but love.
Now, I understand the hate towards him: the casual air with which Stephen Curry destroys dreams like basketball's answer to a mobile artillery unit is bound to make anyone that places second to him a hater for the evening. But at the end of the day, villain or hero, the league is simply better with a great like Steph performing at his best. A premier showman who is simultaneously a master of their craft is among the rarest and iconic things in any field.
So, before you hate, before you analyze, before you try and downplay his significance on the game of basketball, enjoy the sublime cooking of Stephen Curry. Before the kitchen runs out of stock.
