Ever since he broke out with the Golden State Warriors, people, fans, experts, and analysts have deemed Stephen Curry as the greatest shooter in NBA history. Up to this day, the 2-time MVP still carries that distinction almost unanimously.
Nonetheless, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard has been lighting it up from way downtown even more often than Curry over the past couple of years, making some people change the term ‘Curry range’ to ‘Lillard range’.
Obviously, with Lillard rising as one of the league’s most prominent scorers, there will always be comparisons, with Stephen Curry being the guy who’s often mentioned because of the way they play the game.
Damian Lillard Says He Doesn’t Try To Convince People That He Can Do What Stephen Curry Does
That’s why Lillard finally opened up to Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports, claiming that it’s not that he’s taking a page from Steph’s book rather than people is finally starting to notice him and his small-market team:
“I understand Steph has been playing for championships and has been on national TV countless times. They were building a dynasty. So naturally, when he’s making all these long 3s, everyone is going to pay attention to him. I get that. Meanwhile, I’m in Portland and we’re not getting the exposure as some of the other big teams and so a lot of people didn’t know that I’ve been doing this. So I don’t try to convince people that I can do what Steph does. This is what I do,” he said.
Well, that does make sense, and so do the comparisons between them. Both are streaky shooters, can play well off the ball, and aren’t pass-first point guards although they’re great facilitators. Neither of them is exactly big or a good defenderand both can shoot lights out from all three levels.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t truly matter who’s the best player or who has the most range. Both Lillard and Curry are two of the league’s finest entertainers and we should enjoy them rather than trying to put one against the other.