Throughout the brunt of his (soon-to-be) 17-year NBA tenure with the Golden State Warriors, 4-time NBA champion Stephen Curry has successfully positioned the franchise to compete for titles year-in and year-out.
Even as he marches forward towards the twilight of his career, the legendary 37-year-old point guard continues to lead a competitive Warriors squad, but the organization would be lying if they claimed this was all a part of the plan despite height concerns and early injury misfortune.
Curry's extended dominance and remarkable longevity did help Golden State to become one of the most dominant sports teams of the past decade. However, one NBA writer has pointed out that his long and illustrious career played a massive part in wrecking an infamous team-building strategy concocted by the Warriors' front office.
"Somewhere in the far fringes of the multiverse, the young, upstart Golden State Warriors are just starting to hit their stride," CBS Sports' Colin Ward-Henninger wrote Friday afternoon.
"The words themselves are now a Rodney Dangerfield-worthy punchline, but, to be honest, the 'two timelines' strategy actually could have worked. Back in our universe, however, none of that is possible. And that's due to one reason and one reason only: Wardell Stephen Curry II."
"By age 37, Curry was supposed to be riding off into the sunset on his farewell tour. He'd almost certainly still be a Warrior, but his warlock powers would be wearing thin as he graciously ceded the spotlight to the youthful rising core."
"Yet here we are, in 2025, and every move Golden State has made over the past few years has been in service of Curry, who's still one of the handful of NBA superstars capable of being the best player on a championship team."
Though the destruction of Golden State's fabled 'two-timeline' system led to the team hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy for the seventh time in franchise history back in 2022, Curry is still technically responsible for wiping out an entire era of Warriors basketball. Thankfully, it ended up being for good reason.
After acquiring ex-Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler at last season's trade deadline and bringing in a few solid veteran reserves this past summer, the Warriors are once again set up to make a valiant effort at competing in a loaded Western Conference.
Still, it's easy to wonder how the Warriors' 2025-26 roster iteration could have looked if the organization deemed it time to move on from their greatest player in franchise history a few years back.
Moving back to this universe, Curry will aim to prove that he can still spearhead a competitive squad with real title aspirations after a 2024-25 campaign where the future Hall-of-Famer averaged 24.5 points and 6.0 assists on a stellar 61.8% true shooting percentage and nabbed his 11th career All-Star nod.
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