Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr had a bone to pick. That bone was undoubtedly for all of the detractors that questioned his star MVP Steph Curry for lacking grit, determination and ,most of all, toughness.
Curry certainly looked like something was wrong early in the Western Conference Finals, missing wide open layup attempts, not making all of the usual video-game range 3-pointers from the Oracle logo with defenders draped on him – and to top it off, his team went down to the Oklahoma City Thunder 3-1 in the series.
Some tried to blame what they were seeing in shock as after affect to Curry's knee injury that both Kerr and Curry strongly denied. But coach Kerr had a very simple and hilarious reason as to why so many started to peg Curry as not being tough enough.
Yes, amusingly enough to Kerr, it was because Curry just didn't look tough, but the truth always comes to light in the end. Curry is every bit as tough as we all expected. Along with Klay Thompson, Curry led the Warriors to a 4-3 series win, in the process putting up 31/7/6 in Game 5, 31/10/9 in Game 6, and 36/5/8 in the decisive Game 7 victory.
These were all elimination games, and Curry showed up when it counted most and ironically when he was being doubted the most. The fight was mental as much as it was physical, and this was one of the biggest obstacles Curry and the Warriors had to overcome before they could advance to the NBA Finals. Coach Steve Kerr explained to reporters:
“One thing with Steph is he understands that with all these accolades, MVPs, commercials, with all that comes great responsibility. To his team, to the fans he gets that.
He understands that if you play poorly, you're going to get blamed, if you're the star. And I think he's had a rough playoff go because of the injuries and as I said I think he finally felt right physically the last couple games. This is who he is – having a clutch performance in a Game 7, that's Steph Curry.”
The Warriors meet with the Cavaliers as the NBA Finals begin on Thursday in Oakland.
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