LeBron James Or Stephen Curry, Who Is Your Player Of The Decade?

As the decade comes to an end, basketball fans are revisiting some of the greatest moments from the sport between 2009 and 2019.

From Ray Allen saving the Miami Heat with a clutch three to LeBron James’ ‘The Block’ to Stephen Curry ending Oklahoma City Thunder’s chance of winning the title in more than five years, the game of basketball has seen brilliance from a handful of all-time greats.

However, as the calendar is set to turn a page to a new decade altogether, there were two athletes in general who dominated the league with their presence, their uniqueness and just the way they impacted basketball both within the league and worldwide: LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

James was the kid everyone started talking about since 2001, which was two years ahead of him being drafted. He was ‘Michael Jordan Jr.’, he was destined to be ‘the guy’, he was that freak of nature who was meant to rule the basketball kingdom. And even though he got into the league in 2003, he began to behave that way after his ‘Decision’ to move the Miami Heat in 2010.

Hated and revolting to his fans back home, James became the new villain of the league when he joined forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. When they lost the Finals to the Dallas Mavericks in 2011, his legacy took a major hit.

But the 2012 LeBron James was a different beast altogether. His game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics was probably for the first time that he looked like someone who could be the player of the decade. And from there on, there was no looking back.

He became an international phenom. A basketball god in countries like China and the Philippines, as was looked at as a global ambassador for the NBA. People flew from all over the world whenever he played for Team USA and won the two gold medals at the Olympics.

Even a lot of the Americans began to feel for him when he returned home to Cleveland and won them their solitary NBA championship in 2016. The fact that he did so alongside Kyrie Irving against a monster team like the Golden State Warriors who had just recorded best regular season figures only added to his case as the best player in 10 years and arguably the modern era of the league. “Cleveland, this is for you,” he yelled just minutes after he had created history as his Cleveland Cavaliers became the only team to make a comeback after losing 3-1 in the NBA Finals.

Three NBA titles, four MVPs, three Finals MVPs and eight consecutive NBA Finals appearances, this is how LeBron James defines his time on the court between 2009 and 2019.

On the other hand, there was this skinny little dude with ankles weaker than a new-born baby lamb named Wardell Stephen Curry, who was ‘just there’ in the league for a long time. Drafted in 2009, it took him five years to make his first All-Star appearance. He was supposed to be just another three-point shooter, just another role-player hoping to be on a team looking to win a ring.

NBA MVP? The most successful shooter ever? Revolutionaling the whole game as we know it? Dominating the sport of giants while being 1.91m tall? He wasn’t supposed to be all that. He wasn’t supposed to be here!

But he still was.

His ascension to greatness is something that feels like a Disney story. A small kid nobody knew about, comes out of nowhere to fight toe to toe against the bullies and finally wins over them by unleashing his own special talent.

The first look at his potential could be traced back to a regular season game between the Warriors and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in 2013. A 24-year-old Curry was lighting up Carmelo Anthony and the Big Apple with his shots from beyond the arc. By the end of the game, Curry had hit a franchise high 11 threes and had himself a 54-point night. But because the Warriors lost to the Knicks by four, this game doesn’t really come to mind while establishing the marksman’s legacy.

What does come to mind is Game 3 of the 2015 Playoffs between the Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans and Curry’s back to back triples in the final seconds of the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime and winning it all eventually. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors made it plenty clear that they were here to stay.

Three NBA titles, two MVPs and a scoring champion, the ‘baby-faced assassin’ has had a great decade on the court. However, one of his achievements (maybe the most important one) that can’t be quantified in numbers is how he has changed the game of basketball forever. What once used to be a game of big men scoring from one of two metres away from the ring has now become a league of three-pointers. Teams are launching more shots from beyond the arc than they are from inside it. And all this encircles around one man; Warriors No. 30.

And even though LJB has clearly been the best athlete in the game for more than a decade, even though this is this his league right now, the fact that he has merely adapted basketball as is and has not changed it in any manner is possibly why publications like the New York Times have honoured Curry as the ‘Player of the Decade.’