Steph Curry isn't one to chase records, but he'd be lying if he said one in particular wasn't in the back of his mind as he approaches Year 17 in the NBA.
Curry continues to creep up the NBA's all-time scoring list, passing Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West in April for the 24th spot. Of the 23 players in front of him, only four — LeBron James (No. 1), Kevin Durant (No. 8), James Harden (No. 11) and Russell Westbrook (No. 20) — currently are active.
The Warriors superstar admitted reaching the top 10 is something he has his eye on — and something not far out of reach.
"I wouldn't say I don't care. I do the math every once in a while," Curry told Complex's Speedy Mormon in a recent interview. "Every time you catch somebody and they do the thing in the arenas like, 'Oh, congratulations, you passed Jerry West,' which was a special one for me, that's when you're like, oh, how far can I go? So I do the math. If I average 20-something [points], two and a half seasons, I'm playing 70 games, I do that math all the time just to get in your head how long do you have to play and to what level to catch the top of that list?
"But after I do that, I don't think about it again until the next time it happens. So it's just a fun way to keep yourself in the moment and give yourself, for a hot second, something to look forward to. But that's not why I'll keep going. It's more that I want to get to a level where we're competing and playing for championships."
26 comments
Only math that matters in this conversation is how many rings or mvps
Top 10 scoring list? That’s a herculean effort. He will have to average like 40 PPG in a full season sacrificing his efficiency and go full chuck mode
JAMES HARDEN IS NUMBER 11!!
Also, good time to point out that OKC had 3 of the top 20 scorers of all time and couldn’t win and didn’t keep them.
That is all.
Taking a look, Harden will probably break into the top 10 this year.
Speedy Mormon 😭😭😭
It’s two good seasons pretty healthy. Gets tough to move higher than 10th with Durant and Harden still playing and Wilt at 31k and some change.
Bro is not going to be playing 70 games while scoring above 20 ppg for the next 3 years. He’s only been able to play 70+ games half the time in his career. It’s not getting better now.
Curry has never been about the individual box score, but how easy he makes it for everybody else in the process. Alpha scorer just isn’t in his DNA. That being said, he’d be top 20 already if it wasn’t for early career injuries.
I wonder if anyone has calculated a list of most points scored by team when player is on the floor. Curry may be higher than 24th on that list due to his impact on the floor in addition to his scoring.
He still have 2 years in his contract. His target would be Shaq at 28596 since Harden would most likely pass Shaq and Melo maybe this year. He plays about 65+ games a season since his 5-game season.
Top 10 is definitely doable. He needs to average 24.69 PPG for two seasons playing 65 games each.
The tougher part is hitting 30k which may or may not happen depending on what he’ll do after his current contract.
He needs 4641 points to pass Dr J. That’s probably 200 games at least, which would be nearly 3 full seasons of his current production. Not impossible, but pretty unlikely.
But all the guys they are passing didn’t need 17-22 seasons to get those numbers. Longevity isn’t impressive as these guys think..
Who the hell is speedy mormon
All time scoring is one of the most useless metrics when Karl malone is 3rd place
The most interesting thing I learned while looking up the all time scoring list is DeMar DeRozan being only 94 points behind Steph.
It’s crazy looking at the all time scoring list, the next person to have more assist than LeBron is CP at 36 🤯
I think it would be really cool to see “washed” Steph on a contender playing 10-15 minutes a game just to knock down 4 threes
I said it when he got drafted and I’ll say it again
The Warriors should’ve stuck with Monta Ellis
It’s crazy how low steph is on this list all things considered, but he spent a prime chunk of his career blowing out other teams and not having to force his scoring and play late into games.
He also had a relatively slow start to his career scoring wise.
Hope he gets to top 10 but this stat won’t change my thoughts on him either way
Steph stat padding at the end of his career is hilarious
It’s actually wild that he’s as far down the list as he is
As long as it’s in a Warriors jersey, I’ll be happy to see it!
He’ll do it in 2-3 seasons.
Just given the health and availability I wonder if Demar gets ahead of Steph at some point. Steph may score more but 22 a game for 80 vs 25 a game for 70 gets you to a very similar place. Same with Russ, probably finished very close to them.
I expect them to be 14/15/16 by the end of the year.
James Harden will pass Melo and Shaq for 9th all time, KD I think will pass Mike very late in the season for 5th, if not be a couple points off for 6th. Lebron will put the record over 5500 away from Kareem/7K away from Karl “13” Malone.
Love the honesty.
How tf is Harden so far ahead of him? Or KD for that matter? I know Steph started a little slow but damn.