Back in the day, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the standard for fundamentals for young basketball prospects.
Hoopers from all over the world worked on their footwork, post movements, and face-up game to try and be like the six-time MVP.
That’s no longer the case.
The old-school big man is a dying breed, and the league is shifting toward the perimeter more and more every year.
That trend started long before Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors rose to prominence, but it seemingly got out of hand as soon as they became the team to beat in the NBA.
That’s why Kareem isn’t so satisfied with the way Curry has influenced the game as of late, and he jokingly said that he wants to slap him because of that.
“They’ve forgotten about anything that does not say three points on it,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “And I got to go across the Bay and slap Steph Curry for changing everybody’s mind about how to play the game.”
Of course, one has to take Kareem’s comments on modern-day players with a grain of salt, as he’s often been quite critical of this new era of basketball.
Also, it’s not like Steph went out there and encouraged the kids to take wild shots or pull up from 30+ feet; it just happened.
Moreover, Curry’s way of playing cannot be replicated, the same way no one could replicate what Kareem was doing back in the day.
We’re talking about players that come once in a lifetime, no matter how much people try to imitate them.
So, yes, Curry is most definitely the most influential hooper of his generation.
But he’s not entirely to blame for this three-point happy era, and the game needed to evolve eventually anyways.
