King James Gospel
Fansided

Cleveland Cavaliers: Why Stephen Curry isn’t LeBron James’ rival

By Reece Helms

Jun 19, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) handles the ball against Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) during the third quarter in game seven of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 19, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) handles the ball against Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) during the third quarter in game seven of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
January 16, 2017; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates in front of Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the second quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
January 16, 2017; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates in front of Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the second quarter at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

The question is: Are LeBron James and Stephen Curry rivals?

No.

Based off his quotes the past few years, LeBron doesn’t care about any of that. Being the most popular player is not his primary concern. His motivation is “the ghost in Chicago” being Michael Jordan. That’s his rival.

Ever since James was in high school, he has been compared to Michael Jordan. Although most view him as a Magic Johnson type of player, Jordan has been the standard he’s held to. In his second season in the NBA, Sports Illustrated was already asking the question if LeBron was “the best ever?”

Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of this magazine cover.

Michael Jordan has always been LeBron’s rival. This “rivalry” has existed since LeBron James entered the league in 2003-2004. Stephen Curry has only been relevant to LeBron for two seasons.

We’ve seen LeBron James and Stephen Curry play versus each other in the last 2 NBA Finals. It isn’t even close who the better player is, it’s not debatable. In fact, there is a good argument to be made LeBron deserved Finals MVP in 2015 despite the Warriors winning the series. Curry wasn’t even the MVP for his team, the 6th man off the bench Andre Iguodala won the Finals MVP.