Why Stephen Curry (Not LeBron) Is the N.B.A. Player of the Decade

It had to be one or the other. But as great as LeBron James has been, Curry had the edge in one major way: He changed the game.

Stephen Curry shooting as LeBron James tries to defend in Game 1 of the 2018 N.B.A. finals. Curry’s Warriors won the championship, their third of the decade.Credit...Kyle Terada/USA Today Sports, via Reuters


By Shauntel Lowe
Published Dec. 25, 2019Updated Oct. 19, 2021


The New York Times is reflecting on the past decade in the N.B.A., which has evolved perhaps more than any other major sports league.

The choice for the N.B.A.’s player of the decade came down to just two superstars — Stephen Curry and LeBron James. Which of the two should it be?

After all, if it wasn’t Curry holding a championship trophy in recent years, the expectation was that it would be James instead. Nine of the decade’s N.B.A. finals featured at least one of them, and their teams claimed six of the championships. They won half of the past decade’s Most Valuable Player Awards. If one of them wasn’t on national television on a given night, then the other one was. With the previous generation’s biggest stars fading, they boldly staked their claim to the spotlight.

But when it came to picking the player of the decade, our writers’ decisions were pretty clear.
The Case for LeBron James


James as a member of the Miami Heat in the playoffs of 2012, when he won his first title.Credit...Andrew Innerarity/Reuters


VICTOR MATHER

Senior staff editor and reporter

Let’s see: the most points in the decade, the most field goals, the top rating in most advanced stats, the most Most Valuable Player awards (three), the most finals M.V.P. awards (three). LeBron James even led the decade in minutes played.

Or you could be a contrarian and choose, maybe, the blocks-per-minute leader, JaVale McGee. Probably not the right pick, though.

SCOTT CACCIOLA

Sports reporter

Three N.B.A. championships, including the first for the city of Cleveland. Three more M.V.P.s to go with the one he won last decade. More highlight-reel dunks and chase-down blocks and signature moments than any of his peers (no offense, Steph).

But beyond merely being the most dominant player of the decade, James was the figure around whom the rest of the league orbited. For potential title contenders, his presence — in Miami, in Cleveland, in Los Angeles — figured into every calculation other teams made. Which players could they acquire to help vanquish the King? Which picks could they package to trade for more depth, more star power, more scoring and defense?

Now in his 17th season, and on the cusp of a new decade, James is still going strong, positioning the Lakers for their first deep playoff run since the days of Kobe Bryant. Staggering but true: James’s greatest feat may still be ahead of him.


The Landslide for Stephen Curry

HARVEY ARATON

Hall of Fame sportswriter

Stephen Curry. Heresy, right? Maybe not. Curry’s impact on the way N.B.A. games are played now — from deep and deeper — has been more profound than James’s impact, though the King was unquestionably the decade’s best overall player and biggest newsmaker.

Sign up for the Sports Newsletter Get our most ambitious projects, stories and analysis delivered to your inbox every week. Get it sent to your inbox.

Just for the record, Curry was a two-time M.V.P., won as many titles (three) as James — all against James’s team — and was the most dynamic talent for a Warriors team that set the record (73) for most games won in a season. He was the most breathtaking long-distance dialer of a far-out decade.

MARC STEIN


MARC STEIN

Hall of Fame sports reporter

This one is impossible. LeBron took his Miami and Cleveland teams to eight consecutive N.B.A. finals and ushered in the player-empowerment era with “The Decision” in 2010 — followed by two more landscape-altering free agencies — when he returned to the Cavaliers in 2014 and then bolted to the Lakers in 2018. Stephen Curry rewrote the boundaries of acceptable shooting distance as the 3-pointer became this sport’s weapon of prominence, and he served as the face of a team that went to five consecutive finals and won three championships.

A tie is the fairest result here, but I grudgingly concede that ties aren’t allowed. So I’m going with Steph, as the starriest force most synonymous with the Team of the Decade, by the narrowest of margins.

The panelists’ verdict: Curry defined the last decade.

Ben Margot/Associated Press


KEVIN DRAPER

Sports business reporter

LeBron James was undoubtedly the best player of the decade, but Stephen Curry defined it. Writing about the 3-point revolution has become stale and trite, but Curry really did change the game. It was not all that long ago that shooting pull-up 3s, or shooting from more than a foot or two behind the arc, was verboten. But Curry and the Warriors redefined what needed to be defended, warping and breaking defensive schemes in the process.

Oh, and he also won three championships, two M.V.P.’s and led the Warriors to the best regular-season ever in 2015-16. Let’s not talk about what happened next.



SHAUNTEL LOWE

N.B.A. editor

It feels weird not to pick LeBron James here, what with him being the best player in the world and all, but Stephen Curry was the defining player of this decade. No one changed basketball the way he did, and no one captivated the world as he did. Suddenly, here was a player for whom there was no such thing as a bad shot. That’s not true for anyone besides Curry. He’s the one.


Stephen Curry won three championships with the Warriors in the 2010s.Credit...Cary Edmondson/USA Today Sports, via Reuters


BENJAMIN HOFFMAN

Senior staff editor

Try to imagine Stephen Curry playing in any other decade.

The record for 3-pointers in a season when Curry joined the N.B.A. in the 2009-10 season was 269 by Ray Allen, and only 21 players had ever topped 200. In the 11 seasons since, Curry has topped Allen’s record five times, setting a potentially unbreakable record of 402 in 2015-16.

But Curry didn’t benefit from this era — he created it. Before him, it was unheard of to ignore the shot clock and hoist 30-footers off the dribble with ease. And even though he has his share of imitators (Damian Lillard, Trae Young, etc.), no one has mastered the art nearly as well.

Curry was at the heart of the decade’s best team, winning three titles in a five-year period of total dominance, and his size and smile helped him become the face of the N.B.A. for a new generation of fans.

New York State Sues NYPD Over Its Handling Of 2020 Racial Justice Protests

BILL CHAPPELL

 NPR

Protestors shout in front of NYPD officers during a "Black Lives Matter" demonstration last summer in New York City, in outrage over the death of a black man in Minnesota who died after a white policeman kneeled on his neck for several minutes.

Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Updated at 1 p.m. ET

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department, citing "a pattern of using excessive force and making false arrests against New Yorkers during peaceful protests" that sought racial justice and other changes.

The Black Lives Matter movement and other activists organized large protests in New York and other states last year, after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Demonstrations grew over similar incidents, including the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.

James' office says it has received "more than 1,300 complaints and pieces of evidence" about the police response to the protests in New York City. It's now seeking a court order "declaring that the policies and practices that the NYPD used during these protests were unlawful."

Along with the court order, the attorney general is asking for policy reforms, as well as a monitor to be installed to oversee the NYPD's tactics and handling of future protests.

The NYPD has been sharply criticized over a number of its officers' actions in the past year. Last May, police SUVs were shown in a video of a protest in Brooklyn, surging into a crowd that had surrounded them. In another incident, an officer drew his gun and pointed it at a crowd of people.

And in July, plainclothes officers were seen on video as they "aggressively detained a woman at a protest and hauled her away in an unmarked vehicle," as NPR reported.

"There is no question that the NYPD engaged in a pattern of excessive, brutal, and unlawful force against peaceful protesters," James said. "Over the past few months, the NYPD has repeatedly and blatantly violated the rights of New Yorkers, inflicting significant physical and psychological harm and leading to great distrust in law enforcement."

"With today's lawsuit," James said, "this longstanding pattern of brutal and illegal force ends. No one is above the law — not even the individuals charged with enforcing it."

The police actions broke state and federal law, James says. The lawsuit alleges that New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan "failed to prevent and address the pattern or practice of excessive force and false arrests by officers against peaceful protesters in violation of the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution" as well as state laws.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After the lawsuit was filed, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York issued a statement blaming the city's leadership for the problems at the protests.

"They sent cops out to police unprecedented protests and violent riots with no plan, no strategy and no support," PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said.

James announced the lawsuit against the NYPD Thursday morning, in a virtual news conference that began shortly before New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered his annual State of the State address. Cuomo called on James — who is elected, not appointed – to investigate NYPD's response to the protests last May.

"Last night we saw disturbing violent clashes amid protests in Brooklyn," Cuomo said when he announced his request for an inquiry. He added, "The public deserves answers and accountability."

Last June, the NYPD suspended at least two officers for their behavior during protests, including an officer who was captured on video pushing a woman to the ground in Brooklyn. Another officer was punished for "pulling down an individual's face mask in Brooklyn and spraying pepper spray at him," as ABC7 New York reported.

Human Rights Watch, an independent watchdog group, issued a report last year on the police misconduct in Brooklyn which said that clearly identified medics and legal observers were among those zip-tied and beaten by police, in a response to the protest which was "intentional, planned, and unjustified."

The lawsuit says the police department sent thousands of poorly trained officers to cope with large-scale protests, resulting in mass arrests and attempts to suppress demonstrations. It also says the NYPD made a practice out of "kettling" – corralling people by using physical force and obstructions – to arrest protesters rather than allow crowds to disperse.

As the Gothamist website reports:

"The NYPD has already been under the oversight of a federal monitor for more than six years. The federal monitor, Peter Zimroth, was ordered by the court to oversee sweeping stop-and-frisk reforms. The department's work to reform stop-and-frisk practices, and address racial biases in policing, is ongoing. The monitor has not yet deemed the NYPD to be fully in compliance with reforms."

A Minnesota judge ruled this week that Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who kept his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes, will stand trial alone when proceedings begin in March. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter.

LA Lakers Win their 17th NBA championship

 

The Western Conference champions beat the Miami Heat 106-93 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, securing their first championship win since 2010. 

The Lakers clinched the title after a down-to-the-wire battle at Friday’s Game 5, when the Heat staved off elimination in a last-minute win. It comes after a tumultuous 74th NBA season that started almost a year ago. The league was brought to a standstill by the COVID-19 pandemic in March, but restarted in late July in an isolated bubble at Orlando’s Walt Disney World.

LeBron James won his 4th Finals MVP award, making him the first player in NBA history to do so with three different teams.

This season, for James and the Lakers, had it all. And it ended in the only fashion that they deemed would be acceptable, with them back atop the basketball world.

It’s the Lakers first time as NBA champions since Kobe Bryant’s fifth and final title a decade ago. James had 28 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists.

Anthony Davis had 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who dealt with the enormous anguish that followed the death of the iconic Bryant in January and all the challenges that came with leaving home for three months to play at Walt Disney World.

With that, the league’s bubble chapter, put together after a 4 1/2-month suspension of play that started March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic, is over. So, too, is a season that saw the league and China get into political sparring, the death on Jan. 1 of commissioner emeritus David Stern — the man who did so much to make the league what it is — and then the shock on Jan. 26 that came with the news that Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash.

The Lakers said they were playing the rest of the season in his memory.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.