While others have taken the populist road with their nominations for Sportsperson of the Year and will likely snag a greater share of the public vote, Stephen Curry is the only contender to have redefined what a superstar in their field looks like.
The Golden State Warriors point guard has been defying expectations since the moment he set foot in the league in 2009 and is now the undisputed king in a league that still includes LeBron James and Kevin Durant at the peak of their powers.
Curry’s impressive list of achievements in 2015 starts with leading the Warriors to their first NBA title in 40 years, a 4-2 victory over James’s Cleveland Cavaliers, ending a season in that saw him named the league’s Most Valuable Player for the first time.
Having listened to whispers around the league that Golden State were ‘lucky’ champions, Curry upped his game again when the league resumed at the end of October, leading the Warriors to victories in their first 24 games of the new season, a record streak to start a US professional sports season and the second longest in NBA history (when added to the final four games of last season).
He is putting up insane numbers, averaging 32.3 points per game, to go with six assists and five rebounds, while shooting more than 50 per cent from the field and 45 per cent from three-point range, fabulous ratios before you even consider the volume of shots he’s putting up – he’s on pace to attempt more than 900 three-point shots this season, more than 200 more than anyone in NBA history.
As well as leading this year’s race, you could even argue that last year’s MVP should win the league’s Most Improved Player award as well.
Team-mates have even given up rebounding for him.
🔥🔥🔥 I can't stop laughing at Bogut not even playing for the rebound on this Steph Curry 3-pointer https://t.co/NUb0zlnoBq
— Wyclef Marley (@wyclefmarley) December 6, 2015
The three-pointer has become increasingly prevalent in the NBA – to the point of infuriating some traditionalists – but there are few more thrilling sights than seeing its the lethal Curry heat up from distance.
He has become the first to truly master the art of shooting off the dribble, and there is seemingly no limit to his range. While most players spot up just outside the arc and wait for an open shot, Curry is happy to pull up from several feet further back, to devastating effect.
https://twitter.com/IanKenyonNFL/status/675385889325879296
Steph has hit 42% of his shots from 28-42 feet this season. The rest of the NBA has hit 16%: https://t.co/kcPITUppSk pic.twitter.com/NkUy3ozS4V
— Benjamin Morris (@skepticalsports) December 10, 2015
His PER, or Player Efficiency Rating, stands at 32.14 for the season, which would eclipse the all-time mark of 31.82, held by Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain (only one other point guard cracks the top 20), but it’s only when you get past the numbers that you get to heart of why Curry has become America’s sporting darling over the past 12 months.
For a start, just look at him. He’s listed as 6ft 3in tall (although is probably closer to 6ft 1in) and weighs less than 14st, and despite being 27 could fit right in at any first-year college class.
Compare him to previous players who were the face of the NBA and the contrast is immediately clear.
Michael Jordan and LeBron James are fierce and intense competitors, physical freaks and forces of nature on the court, while Chamberlain and Shaquille O’Neal were seven-foot behemoths, so strong they physically dominated the competition.
Kobe Bryant was a volume scorer who did much of his damage from long range but the efficiency with which Curry plays puts the Lakers great in the shade.
Magic Johnson played the game with the same verve as Curry, but stood 6ft 9in – enormous for a point guard – and attempted just over 1,000 three-pointers in his entire career.
None of the others, perhaps Shaq aside, seemed to enjoy the game as much as Curry, who laughs, smiles and dances his way through games at the same time as he plunges the dagger into another opponent, and then is happy to sit and take questions while his enviably cute toddler daughter captures the hearts of a nation.
Curry is a transcendant talent – just look at the crowds who show up hours before games to catch a glimpse of his famous warm-up routine – but more than that he is accessible.
He isn’t a physical freak, nor is he a troubled genius, he is the boy next door who is delighted to compare himself to Lionel Messi. He is the fresh-faced assassin who is the hero of every sports-mad child in America and who cheerleads for his team-mates as much as his own fans shout for him.
He isn’t the tallest or the strongest, nor can he jump the highest, but in less than 18 months he has become a unique figure in NBA history is by some distance the sportsperson of the year.
