It’s most fitting that the paramount rivalry of this NBA era keeps reinventing itself. Yes, Stephen Curry vs. LeBron James is the consistent draw, and the Golden State Warriors have always brought Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to the fight, too. But in a league that now changes rapidly, the Warriors and LeBron’s team of the moment never stay the same for long, either.
Fortunately, their variants can’t avoid each other.
The greatest current rivalry is also an elastic one. For the fifth time in nine postseasons, the storyline is familiar, but this is the third iteration of the Warriors to challenge King James. The differences in LeBron’s squads have been even more dramatic; he has been on a nomadic and often mercenary journey for much of the second half of his 20-season career.
Their practices are dissimilar. The Warriors, who employed a Spurs-ian organic roster construction and emphasis on culture, have reimagined offense (and subtly defense as well) with their free-flowing, positionless brand of basketball. And they have done it in three phases: the “Strength in Numbers” team that won a title in 2015 and came up short in 2016 after a record-breaking 73-9 regular season; the Kevin Durant superteam that won two more titles; and the post-KD Warriors who triumphed last season on moxie, defensive versatility and age-defying Curry.
On the other side, James continues to influence the league with a singular vision of success. After winning two titles in four seasons with the Miami Heat, James brought all the championship cheat codes back to Cleveland. He returned in 2014 adamant about finishing what he started when the Cavaliers drafted him, and on a team with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, he seemed to have a clear path to dominate the NBA. But then the Warriors seemingly came out of nowhere, ensuring James would never build a true dynasty.
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Still, he keeps regenerating greatness. In Cleveland, he went to the Finals four straight seasons, and though three of those ended in losses to the Warriors, he led the Cavaliers to that historic rally over Golden State in 2016. Later, after Irving forced Cleveland to trade him, James took a diminished team back to the Finals one last time in 2018. It’s wild to think he has been with the Los Angeles Lakers for five seasons. It has been a frustrating, inconsistent, drama-filled run, but after trading for Anthony Davis, the Lakers won it all in the bubble in 2020. Now James is staring down his nemesis again.
There seems to be an expectation that this series — the first time these two forces have met before the Finals — will be the decisive showdown in the rivalry. That’s unlikely. The Warriors have a 3-1 record against LeBron on the ultimate stage. James can’t gain much more than satisfaction if the Lakers, who won Game 1 to take the early lead, win this second-round matchup. He would still trade this one for a Finals triumph, particularly the 2017 title in which the Cavaliers had their best all-around team but ran into a Golden State squad that went 16-1 in those playoffs and unleashed peak Durant on the world. This series is more a treat of longevity, one more moment to reflect on what Curry, James and the fluid groups of teammates around them have meant to the past decade in the sport.
As a superstar-driven league, the NBA is at its best when the defining players of an era clash. The playoffs are really pushing the nostalgia button right now, with the Heat and New York Knicks taking us back to the 1990s and the Celtics-Philadelphia 76ers matchup keeping the ’80s alive. But Steph vs. LeBron has conjured memories of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. History will remember them on that level. And while the game doesn’t need rescuing as it did during the Magic-Bird days, this rivalry came at the right time.
The NBA never saw James and Kobe Bryant meet in the Finals, something that James still laments. Positionally, Durant is a more equitable rival for James, and in three Finals meetings, they often guarded each other. But injuries have prevented Durant from being a regular foe.
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So over time, Curry has emerged as the star with the talent, the team success, the chutzpah and the marketability to rival James on the court and in fans’ hearts. This game of transcendence goes beyond the evaluation of who’s better. James always will be more versatile and dominant. But if we’re talking about who has had the greatest influence on this era, it’s a debate in which Curry remarkably has an edge.
But don’t let it devolve into a tiresome GOAT-like argument. It’s much more powerful to recognize the balance that this rivalry provides. With Curry as their engine, the Warriors have refreshed the classic team-building model and shown the NBA how to adjust to an athletic evolution that keeps blurring positional lines. They also have exemplified the importance of making tweaks to personnel and even strategy while maintaining a distinct identity. As the initiator of the so-called player empowerment era, James modeled a way to use leverage and ensure that franchises don’t exploit great players after signing them to contracts. Superstars see the game differently, and sometimes their visions need to receive more respect.
These are different paths to greatness, but they have accounted for six of the past eight NBA titles. Now Curry’s Warriors and James’s Lakers, both flawed and weathered, are in each other’s way as they try to sneak in a little more glory. Given the struggles of younger teams to take command with the NBA in transition, it was probably inevitable that Curry and James, never satisfied, tussled again.
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It’s a bit of a heartwarming story now, but it will get nasty. It will be disappointing if it doesn’t. Curry gave a hint during Tuesday’s game when he ignored James when the King chatted him up while Curry was headed to the bench for a rest.
Asked what that was about, Curry said, “He was just joking around about having to guard me all the way until I got to the bench.”
Down one game to none, Curry wasn’t interested in amplifying the memory with any humor of his own. LeBron’s team has morphed again, and this one has Davis owning the paint and flying all over the court. The Warriors, playing more small ball than ever, are tasked with changing shape again.
Even as it ages, this great elastic rivalry keeps stretching.
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