And how much should it?
At this point, Steph Curry has done pretty much everything there is to do on a basketball court. MVPs, rings, records, and a highlight reel longer than a CVS receipt. He’s ushered in a decade-long dynasty for the Golden State Warriors and cemented his place as one of the greatest players in NBA history — a top 10 player in most rational people’s minds.
He’s at the point where nothing — save for a massive off-court scandal — could tarnish his legacy. But that doesn’t mean he can’t add to it.
Just last week, none other than Michael Jordan chimed in on the latest Flavor of the Month Useless Offseason Argument, staking his opinion that Magic Johnson was a better point guard than Curry.
Anyone who knows anything about Jordan knew he held that stance, even without texting a talking head his bullet points. In his post-playing days, Jordan has become notorious for two things (other than, you know, the whole failed ownership thing): a staunch belief that players from his era are superior to following generations, and an adamance that nothing means as much as the number of rings piled up.
I don’t want to get caught up in the Curry vs. Magic debate (the tl;dr version of my belief is that Magic is the better point guard if you’re discussing the traditional qualities that are associated with the position, while Curry is the better point guard if you’re discussing the better player who happened to play the point guard position), but the ring debate is one I always want to chime in on.
To admit something I maybe shouldn’t admit, I find it silly. I think we put too much stock into rings, which are the ultimate indicator of a team’s ability, not an individuals. Jordan will tell you one minute that his greatness can be measured by a number of rings that can’t fit on anyone’s hand (unless you’re a villain in The Princess Bride), but then next minute he’ll remind you that he might not have one any rings were it not for Scottie Pippen. Those two sentiments are, in my mind, in direct conflict with one another.
To wit, Johnson — clearly one of the best players in NBA history — did win five rings to Curry’s current tally of four. Johnson was also teammates with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — one of the few players widely recognized as being better than Magic — for four of those five titles. He was teammates with James Worthy for three of them.
Curry, of course, has benefitted from playing with his own cast of future Hall of Famers, even if I’d certainly take 10 years of being teammates with Abdul-Jabbar over three years with Kevin Durant in the “how much easier would this make it for you to win championships” draft. I bring up Johnson’s teammates — and Jordan’s, and Kobe Bryant getting drafted onto a team with prime Shaquille O’Neal — not to discredit anyone’s rings, just to point out why I think it’s a silly thing to use as a point of argument.
But it is used as one. It’s used as one more than perhaps anything else, and as a result, it impacts legacy.
So how much would it change Curry’s legacy in the eyes of NBA fans if he were to have Joe Lacob put in an order for an extra large ring from Jason of Beverly Hills so that he could place it on his thumb?
It would certainly put him in a rarefied air, if you just look at the numbers. A fifth championship would not only tie Curry with Magic, but with Kobe and Tim Duncan, as well. Perhaps more pertinent to the era he plays in, it would give him more rings than LeBron James. It would also put Curry in a spot where only 13 players in NBA history have more rings than he does … and only two of those — Jordan and Abdul-Jabbar — were superstars playing in a league with a few dozen teams.
To my eye, the real legacy-builder in another ring (which, by the way, would give Draymond Green and Klay Thompson a quintet, too) isn’t so much in the ring count, but in the variety of ways in which he did it. Curry led an upstart team to a championship over more traditional powerhouses. He seamlessly worked in a co-superstar in Durant to win two more. He helped the Warriors rebound post-Durant and reach the top of the mountain again. A fifth ring would symbolize working in an old rival, adjusting to an ever-evolving league, and somehow besting the new generation of stars while in his mid-30s.
There’s not much room left for Curry to expand his legacy, but that would add something special in my book. The actual number of rings, bringing him into a draw with Magic, Kobe, and Duncan?
Well, I guess I’m just curious what MJ would say then.