Former Golden State Warriors head coach and longtime ESPN color analyst Mark Jackson had made a few distinctions shortly after his tenure with the team, noting soon-to-be MVP Stephen Curry was “ruining the game” with a barrage of 3-pointers and a top-level display of long-range marksmanship. Teammate Draymond Green was initially “pissed off” when he first heard those comments, but years later, he's able to understand how Jackson initially meant them.
“(Curry's) impact on the game on the whole (is underrated). He can not score a bucket and wreck an entire defense. Just his impact on the defense as a whole, this organization and, most importantly, his impact on the game of basketball,” said Green, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “Have you been to a high school game or a middle school game? When Mark Jackson said a few years ago ‘Steph is ruining the game of basketball,' we was all pissed off, like, ‘What? What is he talking about?' I went to some high school games and said: ‘I see what he's talking about.' He's not talking about Steph, per se, ruining basketball, but he's making a lot of other people think they can do what he does and it ain't the case. So organization: good, game: good, team: good, but the game of basketball is where he really makes his hay.”
Jackson, who is also around for college and high school games, had noted the effect Curry's elite-level marksmanship had in the younger generations of athletes, one who now take deeper and more ill-advised three than ever before — shots that any NBA coach would bench players for taking.
Jackson had first allowed a semblance of it due to Curry's storied 3-point prowess, but it was current coach Steve Kerr who gave him the ultimate green light, showcasing the full array of long-range pyrotechnics the youth has now ferociously tried to imitate.
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