Why Steph isn’t a top-10 NBA player of all time, per T-Mac originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Steph Curry again was subject to slander from a retired NBA player. It’s a day that ends in “-y,” after all.
The latest culprit is Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady. The 45-year-old left the superstar Warriors guard off of his top-10 NBA players of all time list, and he had interesting reasoning for doing so.
Here’s what McGrady said on Sunday in a video he posted on X (formerly known as Twitter):
“He hasn’t cracked my top 10 yet — he just hasn’t,” McGrady said on Sunday. “I think Steph has had a phenomenal career. Obviously, four championships, two league MVPs [and] he has a Finals MVP.
“But if you go back in his career and look at when Draymond [Green] is out of the lineup for the season [and] when Klay Thompson is out for the season or half the season, to me, if you’re that ‘great,’ if you’re going to be a top-five [player], and one of your guys is missing and you can’t make the playoffs, I can’t put you in my top five or top 10 — I just can’t.”
McGrady didn’t share his all-time top-10 list in the video.
He did, though, list some of Curry’s remarkable feats. Yet, the seven-time NBA All-Star seemed unimpressed.
McGrady believes a hobbled Curry’s inability to carry a 15-50 injury-riddled Golden State squad to the playoffs during the Coronavirus-impacted 2019-2020 NBA season keeps him apart from the game’s all-time top 10 — which is quite the take.
But McGrady wasn’t finished. He doubled down on what he deems is “greatness.”
“Greatness to me is when one of your guys is out, you still got to elevate your team at least to the playoffs,” McGrady added. “They don’t even make the playoffs when Klay or Draymond are out of the lineups. And they haven’t won a [NBA] Play-In [Tournament] game at all.
“So, top five? No chance.”
McGrady’s use of Golden State’s team performances against Curry’s all-time ranking doesn’t make too much sense, considering the topic is about individual players and not rosters or the team’s season results.
Yet, Curry has the hardware to prove he always has been a team-oriented player. And he has averaged 24.8 points, 6.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds throughout his 15-year NBA career, while McGrady averaged just 19.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists in his. As a player or teammate, Curry has done much.
Curry will retire as one of the best to ever play in the NBA. McGrady, a fellow guard, doesn’t want to see No. 30’s name near the top of any lists, though.
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