Steph Stuff

Rather than a big red “S” on his chest, Superman wears number 30. Or so it seems.

What more can be said about the NBA’s best player after the last 24 hours? Last night, Steph Curry came back from two weeks off with a sprained MCL, to torch the Portland Trailblazers — and the NBA record book, again — in a 132-125 overtime playoff win.

He shook off the rust from the layoff by the second half, and by overtime he was simply on fire, scoring 17 points in the extra period – something no one in the history of the game had ever done in either the playoffs or regular season. After starting by missing his first 9 shots from 3-point range, he finished 16 of 32 from the floor. He was simply ridiculous.

And today, last season’s MVP winner was announced as a unanimous selection for the same honor this year — something else no one had ever done. Think about it: Mikan, Russell, Wilt, Kareem, Bird, Magic, Michael, Kobe, Lebron. Not one of them had ever been the unanimous MVP.

In a note that may have gone unnoticed by many last week, Steph came in 4th in the voting for the league’s Most Improved Player. Think about that for a moment. The reigning league MVP nearly wins the MIP. He was the only player ever to average 30 points per game when playing less than 35 minutes per game. He became 1 of 3 players in history to shoot 50% from the field, 45% from three, and 90% from the free throw line, and the other two did not have nearly as many attempts.

He got better!

Which is why he was the unanimous choice for MVP. And why he lit up Portland last night on one and a half good legs. He’s changing the game… and having fun doing it. Which is also why we should keep watching.

It’s not every day we get the chance to witness greatness like this. Actually, this season it is.

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/15492948/the-numbers-steph-curry-incredible-mvp-season