Stephen Curry wins 2022-23 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors has won the 2022-23 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, as administered and selected by the Professional Basketball Writers Association (PBWA). Named after the NBA’s second commissioner, the honor is presented annually by the PBWA to a player, coach or athletic trainer who shows outstanding service and dedication to the community.

Curry, a four-time NBA champion and two-time MVP, was one of four finalists for the 2022-23 award, along with Los Angeles Lakers center Wenyen Gabriel, LA Clippers forward Paul George and Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams.

The finalists were chosen by a committee of PBWA members from nominees submitted by NBA teams. The winner was determined by a vote of the entire PBWA, which is composed of more than 200 writers and editors who cover the NBA regularly for newspapers, magazines and online news outlets.

“Few athletes have as great a reach or as powerful a platform as Steph Curry, and he has used it to the fullest to benefit others,” said PBWA President Howard Beck. “The members of the Professional Basketball Writers Association salute him and the other nominees for their exemplary work.”

Official 2022-23 All-NBA Teams

Via ESPN.com:

Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid was named to the All-NBA first team for the first time in his career as the league unveiled all three of its All-NBA squads Wednesday night, while LeBron James extended his all-time record to 19 selections.

Embiid was joined on the first team by Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry headlined the second team with his ninth selection. He was joined by Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler and Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.

James, who has now made an All-NBA team for 19 straight seasons, missing out only in his rookie year, led the third-team selections, along with a pair of Sacramento Kings — center Domantas Sabonis and guard De’Aaron Fox. They were joined by Portland Trail Bla

Warriors guard Stephen Curry injury update: out two more weeks

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder on December 14 at Indiana and has missed the team’s last four (4) games, was recently re-evaluated. The re-evaluation, according to the team, indicated that Curry is making good progress.

He will be re-evaluated again in two (2) weeks.

Stephen Curry has a good memory

Steph Curry has a good memory. Via the San Francisco Chronicle:

Earlier in the NBA Finals, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry called himself “the petty king” in reference to him wearing a T-shirt mocking a Boston bar that insulted his wife Ayesha’s cooking prowess.

“I know all about everything and I use it as entertainment and have fun with it,” Curry said.

After clinching the NBA Finals Thursday night — and winning his first-ever Finals MVP in the process — Curry made sure to use his knowledge of “everything” to settle several scores.

The Boston bar that put up signage and sold T-shirts with the phrase “Ayesha Curry can’t cook” was predictably on Curry’s list of targets: the Dubs star posed for a picture with one of the shirts along with his Finals MVP trophy. “Bye Boston,” he wrote in a caption on Instagram.

The article goes on to review Steph’s reaction to what various sports commentators predicted for him.

Safe to say, for Steph, yesterday was a pretty great day.

Golden State Warriors win 2022 NBA championship

NYTimes.com: “It turns out the dynasty had just been paused. Golden State has won the N.B.A. championship again, four seasons after its last one. It is the franchise’s seventh title and the fourth for its three superstars: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who have spent the past decade growing up together, winning together and, over the past three years, learning how fragile success can be. On Thursday, they defeated the Boston Celtics, 103-90, in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals. They won the series, 4-2, and celebrated their clinching victory on the parquet floor of TD Garden, below 17 championship banners, in front of a throng of disappointed partisans. With 24 seconds left in the game, Curry found his father near the baseline, hugged him and shook as he sobbed in his arms. Then Curry turned back toward the game. He put his hands on his head and squatted down, then fell onto the court. “I think I blacked out,” Curry said later.”

ESPN.com: “Draymond Green played his best game of the series, scoring 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, grabbing 12 rebounds, recording eight assists with two steals and two blocks. He also hit two 3-pointers after missing his first 12 attempts of the series. He struggled on the other end, however. With Green as the primary defender, the Celtics shot 9-of-17 from the floor. Andrew Wiggins continued his strong series, finishing with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocks. Jordan Poole added 15 points off the bench, while Klay Thompson scored 12. Gary Payton II had just six points, but finished with a plus-18 net rating.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “All through these NBA Finals, Steph Curry has been more openly emotional than usual, getting into it with Boston fans and doing audaciously early celebrations. Those emotions completely took over on Thursday night as his Warriors put away the Celtics late in a 103-90 win that clinched their fourth NBA title since 2015 and their first since 2018. After coach Steve Kerr pulled the Golden State starters with the win — and the title — assured, Curry began crying on the baseline, embracing his father Dell, who had a victory cigar at the ready. When time expired, the tears really started to flow, with Curry weeping through his ABC interview with Lisa Salters.”

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Warriors eliminate Mavericks in five games to reach 2022 NBA Finals

ESPN.com: The Golden State Warriors are heading back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019 and for the sixth time in the last eight years. The Warriors punched their ticket with their 120-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 on the Western Conference Semifinals on Thursday night. Klay Thompson played his best game of the series, finishing with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-25 shooting, including eight 3-pointers.

ESPN.com: Stephen Curry celebrated the Golden State Warriors’ return to the NBA Finals by adding a new trophy to his collection as he was named the first Western Conference finals Most Valuable Player on Thursday. After the Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks with their 120-110 win in Game 5, Curry was handed the brand-new Magic Johnson Western Conference finals MVP trophy and was immediately hugged and lifted in the air by his teammates. Nine members of the media voted on the series MVP at the end of the game.

San Jose Mercury News: “Steph Curry added to a dusty trophy case Thursday night as the Western Conference Finals’ MVP. What comes with that is the NBA’s inaugural Magic Johnson Trophy, named after the Los Angeles Lakers’ legend. “The new trophy is pretty cool,” Curry said, “especially with who it’s named after and the standard that Magic set in terms of being a champion and playing the point guard position — and other positions — and the excellence he had through his career.” What may be surprising is that Curry’s trophy case is not as filled as you might suspect for a Warriors legend who’s closing in on his fourth NBA championship. In his three NBA Finals triumphs, MVP honors did not go to Curry, but rather Andre Iguodala in 2015 and Kevin Durant in 2017 and ’18. Of course, that Larry O’Brien Trophy is Curry and the Warriors’ ultimate goal once the NBA Finals get underway for the first time in San Francisco, at the Chase Center next Thursday night.”

On the new Warriors ‘death lineup’

Here’s the San Francisco Chronicle on the fun and games the Warriors are unleashing in the form of a new ‘death lineup’ edition:

The Golden State Warriors thrashed the visiting Denver Nuggets for the second straight game on Monday, and the debate erupted right on time. Are the Warriors on their way back? Is the Chase Center as rowdy as the Oracle? Will fans of Joel Embiid ever say something positive about Nikola Jokic? These are all direct questions, and perhaps someone has the time to respond. But there was another issue floating around, one that sparked a collective frenzy: What in the world are we meant to call Golden State’s new death lineup?

For the seven or eight of you not in the know, the (original) death lineup was not an influential 1980s anarcho-crust band but a name lovingly bestowed way back in the 2014-15 season on the genre-bending five-man unit of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green. Skilled playmakers, elite shooting, aggressive long-limbed defenders — this was essentially the platonic ideal of winning small-ball. Steve Kerr (nice guy, good-looking guy!) wisely leaned into this dangerous lineup during the playoffs, and it propelled the Golden State Warriors to their first championship in 40 years. The following season, the same lineup hammered the league nightly and won the most regular season games in NBA history and nothing bad happened after that. And of course, the next year the rich got richer and switched out solid New Republic subscriber Harrison Barnes for human inferno Kevin Durant. The death lineup became the megadeath lineup. And then Durant left. Iguodala was traded. Klay and Steph were injured. Draymond’s attention wandered. The death lineup, for all intents and purposes, was dead.

Hopefully, the league has recovered from its collective death lineup fatigue after a two-year hiatus, because the death lineup is back, thanks in large part to Jordan Poole’s progress and a timely extended hot streak. This is Warriors Dynasty basketball at its finest. That all-too-familiar barrage. It is quite lovely to watch in real time. A deficit turned into a rout in an alchemical blur, life-affirming orderly chaos. It is never boring to watch the life drain from the opposition’s eyes as they do a more-than-acceptable job up until the dam bursts.

Health update on Warriors guard Stephen Curry

Per the Golden State Warriors, guard Stephen Curry, who has missed the team’s last seven games after suffering a sprained ligament in his left foot on March 16 against the Boston Celtics, is making good progress in his recovery process.

He has spent the last two weeks performing various rehabilitation exercises in the training and weight rooms under the guidance of the team’s performance staff.

He will gradually begin individual on-court activities next week, and his eventual return to practice will be based on his continued progress.

The next update on his status will be provided on April 11.

Per the Bay Area News Group, “Curry could still be cleared to start as early as Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs, which begin on April 16. The 34-year-old is “progressing” in his rehab and could start individual on-court workouts next week. “We’ve known that was going to be the case,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We were hoping maybe he could play one, two games at the end of the regular season but that was a long shot. This is how it’s turned out. His rehab is going fine.””