Stephen Curry

Stephen Curry became a game breaker, lightning rod, and singular figure all before his 30th birthday.

Curry's defining characteristic on the court is his ability to shoot off the dribble and pull up effectively from places that were previously inconceivable. The NBA's present and past are full of talented catch-and-shoot marksmen but Curry breaks defenses because his shot requires substantially more planning, talent, and execution to slow down, much less stop.

It took nine seasons for the first NBA player to make 100 three-pointers in a season and another seven years plus moving the three-point line in for anyone to crack 200. Stephen Curry ousted Ray Allen's record of 269 in his fourth season and has already broken his own record two more times in four seasons, only falling short of Allen's 269 in 2013–14.

However, Curry's status as the best shooter of all time only tells part of the story. Over the years, he has combined the ability to draw immense amounts of defensive attention and much improved passing to orchestrate some of the most effective offenses in league history. While Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, and more recently Kevin Durant have integral parts to play, Curry is the focal point and mandatory centerpiece of the system.

His other defining characteristic is also the reason fans all over the league come when doors open for Warriors games: his preparation. While spectators ooh and ahh at dribbling exhibitions and shots from the center court logo or Oracle tunnel, those demonstrations come on top of a foundation built through immense amounts of time and remarkable diligence. In the off-season, Curry challenges himself through complicated drills like one where people stand on the edge of his vision holding numbers and he has to dribble while responding to lights and reading the numbers or another where he dribbles a basketball in one hand and throws around a tennis ball in the other while wearing vision-limiting goggles.

While many focus on Curry's unusual stature and build for a superstar, his uncommon path to this point may be even more remarkable. After all, the giants of league history, like Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and LeBron James, were all undeniable combinations of physical ability and prodigious talent, while Curry faced doubters and skeptics even while building an impressive résumé.

It is somewhat rare for the child of an NBA player to fly under the radar but being Dell Curry's son did not compel any NCAA powerhouses to offer a scholarship. Leading college basketball in scoring as a junior the year after propelling Davidson College to the Elite Eight in the 2008 NCAA Tournament also did not inspire any NBA general manager to select him with a top-five pick.

Even then, after impressing early in his time on the Warriors and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting, Curry ended up sitting behind Acie Law IV in coach Keith Smart's rotation during his sophomore campaign, often in fourth quarters. The next season, Curry only appeared in 26 games as the team shut him down in March after numerous ankle and foot issues and that fall he agreed to a four-year, $44 million contract extension, a lower salary than his performance and potential justified, due to those persistent health concerns.

All of the doubt that could have defined Curry's basketball life ended up being the prologue for a story even his most optimistic supporters did not see coming.

Golden State began the 2012–13 season with Curry as the centerpiece of their offense after trading Monta Ellis during the prior season. Curry responded with his best performance as a pro to that point, as his 22.9 points and 6.9 assists per game helped drive the Warriors to their first playoff appearance since the We Believe team six years before. On top of that, Curry only missed four games, assuaging the injury concerns that dogged his early career and contributed to his less-lucrative extension the prior November.

He built on that success with another strong campaign in 2013–14, increasing his scoring to 24 points per game and assists to 8.5 per game, both new career highs. Again, he missed only four games as the Warriors improved to 51–31, their first season with 50 or more wins in 20 years. While Golden State fell to the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs that season, Curry battled established star Chris Paul for all seven games, including 33 points and nine assists in their 126–121 Game 7 loss. His improvement and the hard-fought series set the table for a truly remarkable stretch.

While the 2014–15...