Fate is really weird.
In the summer of 2023, when Chris Paul was traded again, he joined the warrior who had given everything to fight and became a teammate with Stephen Curry.
The “God of control guard” ranked third in the history attack list has joined hands with the “strongest shooter” ranked first in the history three points list.
Marcus Thompson II, a reporter of The Athletic warriors, sighed: “The incredible degree of their cooperation is equivalent to The cooperation between Green Goblin and Spider-Man.”
The relationship between Paul and Curry is not between the villain and the decent, and the fate of the two has been entangled throughout the past 15 years.
In 2008, Paul had protected Curry, who was still in college at that time, under his wings. He was Curry’s mentor. In 2011, Paul and Curry almost exchanged owners in the transaction. At the peak of Curry, he and Paul became enemies in the West.
Now, the two veterans have become teammates to join hands to win the championship, which is also a gentle touch in the bloody clouds of history.
Tutor
In the summer of 2008, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Curry and Paul were leading a team to fight in a stadium without spectators. The game does not adopt NBA rules, but adopts wild court rules without limits on the number of fouls and free throws.
“It was the match point at that time, and I remember that Paul committed seven consecutive fouls in order not to let us score. Then we lost the vote. He took over the attack and finished the goal and took away the victory.” Curry recalled. This is the typical Paul. He makes reasonable use of the rules and wins at all costs.
That was a lesson Curry, who was still a college student at that time, learned from Paul-mastering rules and using rules. No matter how risky it is, don’t give in. Train the brain to focus on victory and pursue victory with greedy spirit. Don’t care who the opponent is, people block killing people, Buddha block killing Buddha.
Curry began to pay attention to Paul from the perspective of fans when he was 15 years old. In 2003, Paul was a five-star high school student in the United States and ranked 14th in the same level on the enrollment website, the whole state of North Carolina is talking about the small-sized defender who can complete the riot deduction after passing the opponent by changing the direction. Curry heard all kinds of legends about Paul, and he decided to visit the scene with his own eyes.
Curry opened the memory bank: “At that time, I was in the eighth grade. He was two or three years older than me, and he was three levels higher. I heard that his performance was surreal, so I decided to go and see it myself. He staged a performance show.”
Because they were all North Carolina locals, Paul and Curry soon met each other. After Paul landed in NBA, he would still return to North Carolina during the off-season every year to set up training camp to train new people. Curry was the student of his training camp. After Curry was selected by the Warriors in 2009, he trained with Paul throughout the off-season to understand the daily life of NBA players during the off-season, which made curry call “benefit a lot”. Paul also invited the curry couple and their family to Orlando to visit Disneyland.
“He is a great mentor.” Curry is a heartfelt thanks to Paul.
Almost swap owners
In 2011, the gear of fate turned, and Curry and Paul almost changed their owners.
Former Warriors accompanying reporter Strauss broke the news in the book “Winning Machine”. In 2011, Warriors tried to package Curry and Thompson to trade Paul, and the transaction was close to completion. However, Paul threatened the warrior. Even if the Warrior completed the transaction, he would not renew the contract after the contract expired. In the end, it was the Clippers that got Paul.
Later, Larry Riley, the former general manager of warriors, publicly denied this rumor in the program. He said Curry had already established the position of “warriors will be the home guard in the next ten years” in the second half of the rookie season, he never packed Curry and Thompson for Paul.
A few days later, Paul himself came off “face” Riley. He personally confirmed in the interview that he was almost traded to the warrior in 2011, he also admitted that he dissuaded the warrior by “not renewing the contract with the Warrior.
Another anonymous general manager provided evidence: “Warriors are lucky because they failed to exchange Curry and Thompson for stars (before Curry really broke out), they have tried to trade many stars, but they all failed without exception.”
Old enemy
Competition can change a lot of relationships. On LeBlanc James and Kevin Durant, we have seen two big stars change from friends to strangers. Paul and Curry are the same. They are the stumbling blocks on their way to winning the championship. If there is much competition, the relationship will naturally change. As Paul said, “some relationships may not be the same as before”.
In the third game of the first round of the playoffs in 2013, Curry had the opportunity to use the three-point Warriors to get a 2-1 lead, but his three-point shot was destroyed by Paul. Paul was suspected of foul this defense, including Curry, who also thought Paul was foul. After the game, Curry told the reporter of USA Today: “I think if the attacking side shoots, the defensive side hits the attacking side’s forearm, usually the referee will play foul.” In that round of series, Warriors went through seven games.
Since Warriors and Clippers are in the same zone, Curry and Paul gradually become old enemies. In 2015, Raymond Green played the role of Curry’s “mouth replacement”. He revealed: “Curry regards this group of duel as personal grudge. He wants to be better than Paul, I think everyone will set up an imaginary enemy to force himself to make progress. Jordan was bullied by the piston’s “bad children Legion” before, but later he became stronger and that kind of thing never happened again. The opposite of curry and Paul is the same.”
After Paul joined the rocket, he carried the banner of anti-Yong. He and Curry really became old enemies because of the fire war.
At 6 minutes 29 seconds in the third quarter of the battle of Tianwang mountain in the West finals of 2018, Paul attacked Curry and scored three points with high difficulty. After scoring the goal, Paul danced the iconic shoulder shake dance of curry, and Curry responded with a smile. The rocket took down Mount Tianwang, and the warrior’s life was on the line. But Paul missed the last two games because of hamstring strain, and the Warriors turned over.
In the semi-finals of the West in 2019, the two teams met again. This time Paul was fine. In the fourth game, the Rockets fought at home. The day before the curry game, they booked a time to go to Toyota Center for shooting training. Paul also came to the stadium to practice shooting. He rejected Curry’s proposal to train for half a time, insisted on driving Curry out of the stadium.
In the sixth game, Curry shot 33 points away and led the Warriors to beat the Rockets. He shouted, “drive me out of the stadium again!” Green didn’t think it was too big to watch the excitement. He was responsible for spoof on one side, echoing and shouting, “drive him out! Kick him out!”
After Paul joined the Sun, the smell of gunpowder between the old enemies was still strong. On March 13, 2023, warriors fought against the sun, and Curry made a strong effort to win Paul’s layup. After scoring the goal, Curry shouted, “it’s not 2014 now”. After the game, when Paul was asked about this rubbish sentence, Paul pretended to be stupid and replied, “I forgot everything happened in 2014. Tell me.”
Join Hands
In fact, even in those years when Curry and Paul were old enemies, there were still many pictures of warmth between them.
For example, in the All-Star game, Paul gave Curry an empty dunk assist. For example, Curry defended Paul’s career without a crown, saying that his career without a crown still cannot define Paul. For example, Paul praised Curry’s style of play for changing an era and so on. No matter how hostile the competition is on the court between the two, they always feel sympathetic.
Today, Paul and Curry, who were also friends of the enemy, have become teammates, and they will fight for the same goal. It is a problem whether Paul, as the big core of blocking and dismantling, can be integrated into the transmission and cutting system of warriors, but the common goal can solve the problem of compatibility.
Curry has four crowns in hand, still not satisfied. Paul’s career is still uncrowned and full of longing.
This time, they do not need to cross the other side to achieve the goal of winning the championship, but support each other and advance and retreat together.
Can they interpret dreams?
