Getty Warriors point guard Stephen Curry during a May game against the Utah Jazz.
Golden State Warriors do-it-all superstar Stephen Curry may not win the NBA’s MVP award this season (he won’t).
The Dubs may not win their fourth championship since the start of the new millennium, and fifth overall, since relocating to the Bay Area many decades ago this time around. Heck, there’s a decent shot they won’t even make it out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
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What can’t be denied though, is just how special, remarkable and (insert adjective here) of a season Curry is having in what has been a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame career. The two-time league MVP enters Friday night’s crucial matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans on the cusp of reaching yet another astonishing milestone and all he has to do in the game is do the same thing he’s been doing through most of the winter and spring.
Curry is 31 Points Away From His Second 2,000-Point Season
GettyWarriors point guard Stephen Curry before a May game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Chef Curry has scored 1,969 points this season, which currently leads the Association. By scoring 31 more, he’ll have his second 2,000-point campaign of his career.
Curry also reached the 2,000-point threshold following the 2015-2016 season, which was also when he earned his second straight MVP award. Number 30 finished that year with an absurd 2,375 points, but that came in 79 games.
Of course this season has been unlike any other due to the COVID-19 pandemic and one of the most notable changes to the structure of the NBA has been the abbreviated 72-game schedule. Of the 70 Warriors’ games, which started at the end of 2020 and are going through the spring of 2021, Steph has played in 62 entering Friday.
Though he’s currently listed as questionable for Friday’s battle with the Pelicans with a tailbone injury, it would be a shock to see Curry sit out either the contest against New Orleans, or the potentially even bigger Sunday finale against the Memphis Grizzlies. So, despite having significantly fewer opportunities to do it this season, Curry is just 31 away from joining the 2,000-point club again.
His season average by the way, is a league-leading 31.8 points per game, so the feat could very well be accomplished on Friday night. If and when Curry gets to 2,000 again, it will put him in some significantly impressive and exclusive Warriors company.
Multiple 2,000-point Seasons Would Put Curry in Elite Warriors Company
GettyGolden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry reacts after passing Wilt Chamberlain on the teams all-time scoring list during an April game against the Denver Nuggets.
For one of the older NBA franchises – in their 75th season – it’s notable that only three players have ever reached 2,000 points in a season twice. Unsurprisingly, all three of them are in the Hall of Fame, and someday, Curry will join them.
The first two players in the club had careers that overlapped slightly and unfortunately were one year away from playing together on the then-San Francisco Warriors. The one who first went for 2,000 twice was Wilt Chamberlain, and he did it in all five-plus seasons he spent with the franchise from 1959 through part of 1965.
Soon after Chamberlain switched uniforms and joined the Philadelphia 76ers, Rick Barry began his career with the San Francisco Warriors for the 1965-1966 season. Barry scored 2,059 points that season on his way to winning the Rookie of the Year award.
Barry went off for a career-high 2,775 points the following year and then picked up two more 2,000-point seasons with the franchise between 1973 and 1975.
The last time any Warriors player reached this milestone for the second time in their career, Curry was still a toddler. Chris Mullin surpassed 2,000 points three times in his NBA journey – all with the Dubs – and last did it in the 1991-1992 season.
Based on how Steph has looked this season, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him join Mullin in the club of three-plus years with 2,000 points in the near future.
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