Shaquille O’Neal to NBA fans: Is time to include Stephen Curry in the GOAT conversation?

After scoring just 13 points as he battled foul trouble through the first three quarters on Tuesday, Stephen Curry roasted the Celtics for 20 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Warriors pulled out a 132-126 victory after trailing by 17 points late in the third. 

Curry hit the 3-pointer to tie the game late in regulation — a nasty, going-right step-back over Al Horford, who was switched into the unenviable task of trying to contain Curry one-on-one. 

In OT, this rainbow 3 was the dagger that finally put Boston to sleep.

After the game, Shaquille O’Neal, who has long been one of Curry’s most avid supporters in terms of his place within the pantheon of all-time NBA greats, took his praise even further by saying Curry is not only “way better” than he [Shaq] was during his Hall of Fame career, but also asking out loud, for the first time I’ve ever heard it, whether Curry is starting to belong in the GOAT conversation. 

This is going to be a little rich for most people’s basketball blood, including my own, even as an unabashed Curry fan. Curry is not the greatest of all time. 

Having said that, Shaq is right about Curry’s name deserving to be mentioned alongside the greatest to ever do it. Jordan. LeBron. Kareem. Magic. Curry has probably changed the game to as great a degree as any of those guys. Arguably more. He is a singularly unparalleled talent whose unique skill package likely won’t ever be replicated. 

Curry has four championships. He won two of them without a second All-NBA player alongside him. He has two MVPs, one of which was the only unanimous MVP in history. He is going to set the 3-point record so far into the stratosphere that it might never be broken. His combination of shooting and ball-handling has never been seen. He has his Finals MVP, for all you dummies out there who so loved to point to that trophy-case vacancy (he unquestionably should have won in 2015 anyway). 

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Naysayers will point to Curry’s defense as the reason he can’t be talked about with the Jordans and the LeBrons and I have to say, though Curry is a better defender than he’s ever been given credit for, I agree. But an honest argument can be made that Curry, in terms of total impact on the floor, is the single greatest offensive player in history. In fact, I think I would argue that. 

And if you can argue that Curry is the greatest offensive player of all time, and you add in his accolades, then you have to mention him in the biggest conversation. It doesn’t mean he’s the greatest. But he’s in that conversation, whether or not traditionalists and/or size snobs want to admit it.