Stephen Curry, who was just named Sports Illustrated’s 2022 Athlete of the Year in conversation with SI, was asked to put together his all-time starting lineup. There’s a stipulation: Curry has to include himself, which isn’t a stretch because it’s getting harder and harder to justify anyone else as the greatest point guard of all time.
“I’m in PG, I’m going with Magic [Johnson]we’re going to play a hybrid guard,” Curry told SI. “You have [Michael] jordan you have dirk [Nowitzki] space the floor, shoot the ball, and you get big, diesel [Shaquille O’Neal], hold it down. So, I think it’s a solid lineup. “
Curry cobbled together this five-man starting dream, so let’s not get too invested in that, but it’s worth noting that he let LeBron James go. As trivial as this is, I can’t imagine LeBron not taking it lightly. Curry and LeBron are the face of this post-Jordan era. No one else can compete with it, and for good reason LeBron is the greatest player of all time.
Curry’s roster does fit well, and that’s the only way you can even begin to justify Nowitzki just because of James’ spacing, but even in that case, I don’t see how you could use Dirk instead Kevin Durant, who was another slight of Curry’s former teammate. If you want a traditional center, I’d go with Tim Duncan (don’t start with the semantics of “he’s a power forward!”), but Shaq certainly deserves that recognition.
The one you can’t prove is Magic Johnson not LeBron, he’s basically a bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic, better scoring, better shooting and better defensive version of the Magic division. There’s only one thing Magic Johnson can do better than James on the basketball court, and that’s passing, and LeBron himself is a historic passer. Anyone willing to replace LeBron with Magic is living in a nostalgic dream.
A Curry-Jordan backcourt with LeBron at the front is arguably the best perimeter trio you can form. There, you can debate with fourth and fifth players. But keeping LeBron out of any of the five all-time starters, even the ones listed in your head, is out of the question.
