On Saturday night, Stephen Curry’s overtime game-winner against the Thunder was one of the most incredible moments in a career that has already been full of them. And it came in the wake of a parade of retired players like Oscar Robertson comparing Curry (mostly unfavorably) to players from their era.
Phil Jackson, among the best ever at pushing buttons, tweeted a comparison for Curry that’s somewhat unorthodox: Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
Never seen anything like SCurry? Remind you of Chris Jackson/ Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, who had a short but brilliant run in NBA?
— Phil Jackson (@PhilJackson11) February 28, 2016
The first instinct among just about everybody online when Jackson sent this tweet was to ridicule it. But ESPN.com’s Kevin Pelton dug up a time when Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made the same exact comparison:
Some crazy Steph Curry hater compared him to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) February 28, 2016
It was Steve Kerr: https://t.co/McB1no4M9P pic.twitter.com/xWOOhngtqe
It’s hard to know what to do with the comparison — Abdul-Rauf was obviously not nearly the shooter Curry is, a career 35.9 percent three-point shooter despite playing some of his career in the early ‘90s with a shortened three-point line. He was an underrated player in his time, and it’s cool that Jackson is giving him some attention now, but it’s not a bad thing to admit that, no, we have never seen anything like Stephen Curry before.
