Richard Jefferson was one of the more senior players on the Warriors in the 2010s, and he naturally adopted the role of the team vet. Mark Jackson, who coached those early Warriors teams, asked RJ to share his thoughts on Steph Curry when he had him on his podcast.
Jackson, who hosts the Come and Talk 2 Me podcast with his son, had Jeff on, and his son posed an interesting question for the 2016 Champ. He asked him if Jefferson knew Steph would become who he is today from an early stage, or if was he more a product of the environment that the team had created.
Jefferson, who never minces his words, promptly said,
“Like no, did I think Steph was going to be a two-time MVP? No.”
While Steph was a lottery pick in the 2009 draft, his style of play (shooting high-volume threes) wasn’t common in the league at the time, and nobody really knew whether it would translate once he moved on from college ball.
Similarly, Richard would go on to praise Draymond Green as well, saying,
“Draymond was such a unique piece that brought it all together. No one knew Draymond would turn into a future first-ballot Hall of Famer.”
Mark Jackson’s intuition to realize that Curry was more than just a point guard has been lauded over the years. He surrounded him with more shooting and a man with Green’s defensive versatility and offensive deference, which was the key to unlocking GSW’s dominance.
RJ relayed his shock over Steph’s brilliance to JJ Redick in 2023
“I was there when he broke the record. The first record, I think it was 250 maybe or something threes. You didn’t think the [expletive] was going to make 400 threes.”
Jefferson expressed this on the Old Man and the Three in April 2023 and his thoughts on Steph are still true to this day. Jefferson has previously also used his signature dry satirical sarcasm to take credit for Curry and Klay Thompson’s rise to superstardom.
“I feel directly responsible for their success because of everything I taught them,” said Jefferson. “I don’t know if it’s clairvoyance, but I was just putting confidence in them constantly.”
He and Redick also joked about how the Warriors trading him for Andre Iguodala was the reason their dynasty started, and how it would never have been possible if not for RJ.
Jefferson’s years with the Warriors were short but impactful. He’s stressed over the years and even on Mark Jackson’s podcast the importance of having a vet in the locker room. Without veteran leadership, perhaps the Curry-Thompson-Green-Kerr Warriors dynasty would not have flourished as well as it did,