The friendship and closeness between Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul and LeBron James spans more than two decades. James always finds a way to defend and push Paul when given the chance, and vice versa, as seen in Paul’s appearance on the latest episode of the “Gil’s Arena†podcast.
When defending the legitimacy of James’ fourth and most recent championship, in which the Los Angeles Lakers defeated a depleted Miami Heat team in the 2020 NBA bubble, Paul asked, “If Steph [Curry] wins in the bubble did they spoil it?”
The panel, which also included former NBA players Brandon Jennings and Kenyon Martin, gave a resounding “yes,” one that Paul disagreed with.
“They’re not,” Paul said.
Let’s get one thing straight: There was absolutely nothing wrong with Paul standing up for his man. That’s smart business, and their connection goes beyond counting checks. But it also misses the point, one that Jennings is quick to acknowledge.
“Outside of LeBron and Steph, yeah, it’s going to be like, OK. But both of them, they are the only ones who can be slandered,” replied Jennings.
And that’s more to the point: This is Steph and LeBron’s season. There are no two ways around it.
There have been other champions and there have been other MVPs, but no two players are held to a higher standard than Curry and James this season. Both are four-time champions and dominate the game in different ways. The two have met four times in the NBA Finals, where Curry and the Warriors topped James and then the Cleveland Cavaliers in three of the four series.
The bubble is undoubtedly a test of mental strength while staying away from family, friends and society during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as racial and social injustices. Only those who were there can know and understand the full circumstances of that. The numbers don’t lie either.
Everyone benefits on the court in a more open run atmosphere with more risk than summer pickup games. When we say it all, we mean it too.
Remember when TJ Warren scored 53 points against the Philadelphia 76ers in the bubble? Before the bubble, Warren had scored 40 points or more just once in his NBA career. He also scored 39 against the Lakers in the bubble, topped 30 points in four of the nine games he played and averaged 26.6 points on 54 percent shooting and 47.5 percent from 3-point range. Injuries have been a major issue, but Warren has made just 29.7 percent of his 3-pointers in 46 games outside the bubble since then.
For the Lakers, Anthony Davis’ shooting on the bubble was the most noticeable. Davis shot 58.4 percent from the field, 40 percent from deep and 90.9 percent from the free-throw line in the bubble Finals against the Miami Heat. Entering the bubble, Davis had 51.1/33.5/84.5 shooting splits. James in the 2020 Finals had a 59.1 field-goal percentage and shot 41.7 percent from behind the 3-point line. His field-goal percentage before the bubble was 49.8, and he shot 34.9 percent from three.
Crunching the numbers is time for a different debate, however. What makes it so obvious that Curry, whose Warriors are not part of the bubble, would have been spoiled to win one of his championships at the amazing World of Basketball at Disney World is the amount of outside noise he’s made. . THERE to win a championship without Kevin Durant.
Curry’s Hall of Fame credentials were already set in stone before Durant decided to leave the Brooklyn Nets after three seasons as a Warrior. But the heat of the spotlight pressed on him turned into a different temperature. After two seasons – one losing year and another in which Curry did everything in his power to get Golden State to the play-in tournament without Klay Thompson – he became the champion for the fourth time behind some historic number to knock off the heavily favored Boston Celtics in the 2022 Finals.
Thompson averaged 17.0 points on 35.6-percent shooting and 35.1 percent from beyond the arc against Boston. Curry’s backcourt mate for his career averaged 19.8 points on 45.5 percent shooting and a career 41.6 percent 3-point shooter.
Although Curry’s résumé doesn’t need more selling points, and he doesn’t THERE to win his fourth title and nothing THERE to win his first Finals MVP, the way he did it was to put a lid on any naysayers trying to find negatives.
This is, and was, the era of Steph and LeBron in the NBA. Even with championships comes scrutiny. Sometimes that’s the price of greatness, and countless others will do anything to carry the burden.
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