Former Warriors guard explains how Stephen Curry sacrificed his game for Kevin Durant.
Former Warriors point guard Shaun Livingston recently spoke on a podcast for the Players’ Tribune, where he detailed his experience with one of the greatest dynasties in basketball history. According to Livingston, Durant’s arrival signaled a big change for the organization and it was Stephen Curry who had to adjust the most.
“Steph [Curry] took a step back and had to make the biggest adjustment. And I think that’s what Kevin was looking at, like, is Steph gonna take that step back? I never seen anybody score so efficiently as Kevin Durant… 30 on like 12 shots,” said Livingston. “So when he came there wasn’t really an adjustment for him ’cause he could get his in the flow like no one else I’ve ever seen. Steph, his was a little bit more volume, like he needed a little bit more rhythm. After that Christmas game, there was internal conversation amongst them two… That’s when we [were] really [unstoppable].”
Livingston, a 3x champion, was with the Warriors during their best stretch. From 2014-2019, he served as backup point guard for the team and watched as the Warriors went from irrelevant to an unstoppable force in the NBA.
While it was Curry, Klay, and Draymond who initially started the run, Kevin Durant’s arrival is what solidified their status as a dynasty. After losing to the Warriors in the 2016 playoffs, he broke the NBA by joining forces with Curry and making the Warriors nearly unbeatable.
Despite it being Curry’s team, Durant didn’t so much to change his style of play. Instead, it was Steph who had to adjust and he was happy to alter his game for the sake of his team. Compared to 2016, when Curry won unanimous MVP while averaging 30.1 points per game, the Warriors guard averaged just 25.3 points on 16.4 attempts.
In the clutch, Curry would often defer to Durant and allow him to call the shots on the floor. The result was a historic three-year stretch that saw the Warriors dominate the West. They won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018 and might have won it again in 2019 had Durant and Klay Thompson not suffered season-ending injuries in the NBA Finals.
Knowing that it was Curry’s team, Durant ended up leaving in the summer of 2019 to pursue a partnership with Kyrie Irving on the Brooklyn Nets. He’d leave Curry and Klay behind, but it was just a few years before they’d win their fourth title in the 2022 Finals against the Boston Celtics.
Today, even at 36, Steph Curry remains one of the NBA’s elite players, and his selfless actions during his run with Durant are still recognized and celebrated by his loyal fans today. It could not have been easy for such an accomplished superstar to take a step back in the middle of his prime to accommodate Durant but his willingness to adapt helped the Warriors achieve historic levels of success.
Even now, Curry continues to make sacrifices, whether it’s by staying patient with the front office, being flexible with his new teammates, or being open to adjustments to how he plays the game. Going into next season, the Warriors will not be favored to win it all but they may still pose a threat if No. 30 stays healthy. Without Durant or Klay Thompson, Steph has the ultimate freedom to unleash his full powers and that’s exactly what he intends to do for his 16th season.