ESPN analyst Mark Jackson declared during Friday’s Warriors-Cavaliers telecast that reigning MVP Stephen Curry is “hurting the game.”
Jackson went on to say that young players want to shoot like Curry, but not put in the work to be complete players.
Curry laughed off Jackson’s comments after Golden State’s 89-83 win, telling Yahoo! Sports, “I don’t know what he means by that. If you can shoot, shoot. If you can’t, stop.”
Jackson seems to forget that kids will emulate the attributes of almost any star in the NBA, whether it’s Kobe Bryant’s contested fadeaways or James Harden’s drawing fouls.
Curry’s three-point shooting has young players working to improve their outside shot. And that’s not a bad thing.
From from Yahoo!:
Curry’s old coach with the Warriors, ABC analyst Mark Jackson, however, declared during the network’s telecast of Friday’s game that the sharpshooting guard is “hurting” the sport of basketball.
“Understand what I’m saying when I say this. He’s hurting the game,” Jackson said. “And what I mean by that is that I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids, and the first thing they do is they run to the 3-point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of the game.”
Curry chuckled at Jackson’s comments but also seemed confused by them.
“I have to talk to him,” Curry told Yahoo Sports. “I don’t know what he means by that. If you can shoot, shoot. If you can’t, stop.”
