Mark your territory much?
Wow. I write this on a Thursday, almost 48 hours removed from the ‘Slay Klay’ storm that Wardell Stephen Curry II unleashed on the NBA, Chase Center, the Dallas Mavericks and his old Splash Brother, Klay Thompson.
Not in that order.
In fact, the primary victim of the explosion was the last guy I listed — a headband-wearing Klay Thompson, who tried his best to show the Warriors how much they missed him with six damaging three-point baskets. As he made his third, fourth, fifth and sixth, I sat there asking my TV: Klay! What are you doing, making us regret everything?
Turns out that the one guy he was aggravating the most was the guy who would have the last word.
It wasn’t just that Steph scored the Warriors’ final 12 points, and led a comeback from seven points down with 4:30 left. It was *that reaction*.
That reaction was something else, man.
If I asked you to close your eyes and picture Steph unleashing a primal scream into the TNT camera after hitting that ‘night-night’ three, I bet you can do it. It’s that iconic already.
How in the name of the Emirates NBA Cup can an NBA player conjure up that much emotion in a regular season game in NOVEMBER? Most seasoned Association observers don’t even recognize games until at least Christmas, and even more seasoned observers don’t pay attention until the All-Star Break.
(And definitely not until *after* the All-Star Break, because just typing the words ‘NBA All-Star Game’ activated my sports gag reflex. If you haven’t seen it, Google Barack Obama’s takedown of the All-Star game in a recent podcast with Tyrese Haliburton. Even if you hate Obama’s politics, you’ll pump your fist with his accurate shred of that joke of a spectacle.)
Back to Steph’s Nov. 12 barbaric yawp.
Clearly, Steph took Klay’s departure far more personally than any of us could have guessed. All the diplomatic press conference platitudes and expressions of gratitude and friendship are cool and all for one part of the brain. But the other part of the brain — the brain stem, the id, the remnant Neanderthal side, whatever you want to call it — was ACTIVATED by the sight of Klay in a Mavs jersey trying to beat Steph.
I don’t want to engage in too much reckless speculation as to why Steph nearly tore off his jersey when he hit that game-clinching shot, but if I were to engage in reckless speculation, perhaps the last year-plus of Klay’s reported sulking and energy drain triggered Steph more than we know. Curry isn’t one of those players who traffics in negative vibes. He’s spent his whole career as a team player. He unleashes his superstar persona when he has to, but once when discussing bench energy and supporting role players, said “everyone who wears a jersey matters” — a quote I still dust off to the various youth sports teams we coach. That’s Steph.
We also now know, via Draymond Green’s podcast, that Steph may have been miffed that Klay “ghosted” him on text when they were discussing what Steph might say to the crowd before the game. It was only announced shortly before tipoff that Steph wouldn’t speak, as planned. Steve Kerr tried to paint a pretty picture, saying that Steph and Klay hashed it out over text. Draymond told a different story.
A guy can only get ghosted by a friend so many times before he snaps, as I was just saying to my two children who only answer texts when convenient. I digress.
Put it all together and you have Steph screaming so wildly during the Chase explosion that lip readers from across the globe were working overtime. I saw some say he was saying “THIS IS MY S__T!” And others who say he was saying “STAY HERE!”
It doesn’t really matter the exact verbiage, does it? The scream into the camera lens told you all you need to know. It meant everything for Steph to beat Klay, and it meant everything for him to exult from his soul in doing so.
He’s one of the greatest winners we’ve ever seen in sports. He’s Steph Curry.
Answer his texts next time, maybe.
