ESPN's top 100 NBA players list included several players of the Golden State Warriors, including Steph Curry.
The great guard for the Warriors was the last player to make the list after they unveiled the top of their list. Curry came in at number five on ESPN's list, just ahead of LeBron James of the Lakers and directly behind Joel Embiid of the 76ers. Last season, he received the same ranking position.
The only players ranking higher than Steph are Joel Embiid, Luka Doni, Nikola Jokic, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who complete the top five, per SB Nation.
In the recent season, the Dubs won their first title since Kevin Durant departed the team a few years ago and Steph undoubtedly carried them through the playoffs. However, it was also his lowest regular-season performance in 10 years (not including 2019-20 when he played in just five games due to injury).
Steph Curry's Shooting Performance Declined Last Season
Even though Steph Curry continued to play at superstar level, his single-season shooting percentages were the lowest of his career (43.7% from the field and 38.0% from three). He averaged just 25.5 points per game, his lowest total since 2016-17, due to his decline in efficiency. Of course, during the postseason, Curry found another gear and eventually shut down the critics.
Curry averaged 27.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game while shooting 45.9% from the field and 39.7% from three over Golden State's four postseason series. Steph was able to lead the Warriors over several brave opponents on their way to the fourth title of his career.
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These rankings are meant to spark debate in the basketball community. Having said that, Steph Curry maintaining his position in the rankings is by no means irrational.
As is customary every year, many people had something to say about it, according to Fadeaway World, since Andrew Wiggins was ranked higher than Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Trae Young, and Karl-Anthony Towns had better rankings than Jimmy Butler. Plus, LeBron James and Kevin Durant didn't even place in the top five this year.
ESPN's List Gets Bashed By Fans
Even while everyone knew who would make the final cut of this list, it wasn't the end of it, and not everyone was satisfied with the list.
This is the Top 5 in ESPN's list of the best players in the NBA:
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo
2. Nikola Jokic
3. Luka Doncic
4. Joel Embiid
5. Stephen Curry
Here are some of the fan reactions to the controversial ESPN NBA ranking:
Phoenix Bramhall said: These "experts" are a joke fr bro just won finals MVP and he's at 5."
User Greatness was born reacted: "Luka is very overrated! Don't play winning basketball at all!
User Moe-B Bryant noted: "There isn't 3 better players than Steph Curry and there are not 5 players better than LeBron James.
"How can you rank Steph 5 when he won an espy for BEST NBA PLAYER last season lmao," one user tweeted.
Heavy reported one user's comment on the controversial list: "There must be something wrong in the methodology of that ESPN NBA Rank thing. There's no way that if you polled individual ESPN NBA writers, a lot of them would have Steph Curry 5th, right? They have to be smarter than that."
