‘The Great Ones Bring the Best Out of You’: Steph Curry in ‘Awe’ of Kevin Durant Ahead of Nets-Warriors NBA Reunion

When Kevin Durant and Steph Curry took to the court for the Warriors, it was like watching Captain America and Iron Man. The two masters hard at work, taking down their opponents in tandem. But while they will be on the opposite sides for the NBA season opener this year, the mutual admiration between them is still intact.

Steph Curry and Kevin Durant pushed each other in Practice at GSW

Aside from watching these two in games together, they went toe-to-toe every day in practice for three years. Warriors‘ Coach Steve Kerr would put special shooting drills for the two of the best offensive players in NBA history, propelling them to further excellence.

“The great ones bring the best out of you, and hopefully, I did that for him, in terms of pushing each other. You’re always kind of competing against other teams,” said Steph Curry.

“But you’re kind of competing against yourselves in practice when you’re doing shooting drills. And I’m watching him work out with Q and he’s watching me. All those three years, there’s a lot of that kind of chemistry and camaraderie on the court.”

Both were equally capable of bringing the spectators to the edge of their seats. When one had the ball and was on a roll, the other simply took a back seat and admired. This unselfishness and appreciation allowed them to conquer back-to-back NBA championships –

“You’d always kind of find yourself in awe of stuff that he could do on the floor. And I know he’s commented about [the same feeling] with me. That was a big part of our success, was kind of feeding off each other… that pursuit of greatness every day.”

Where do Curry and Durant rank among the best duos?

Out of their 3 seasons together, they won the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2 seasons. While the team had other All-Stars in Klay and Draymond Green, Curry and Durant were the central figures. Hence, a title success rate of 66% is enough for them to make the top-10 list here at least.

Though they may not be quite the Kareem-Magic, Shaq-Kobe, or MJ-Pipper tandems, they were the best scoring one. From a purely offensive standout, none of the others match their bag of tricks.

To conclude, even though they may not be the best duo, their shooting arsenal is second to none. But they go against each other as separate halves when Brooklyn Nets and Warriors face off.