LeBron James and Stephen Curry looked like the best of friends when winning a gold medal for Team USA during the 2024 Paris Olympics, but that reportedly wasn’t always the case.
“We were at all those Finals where I don’t care what LeBron says now,” Sam Amick of The Athletic said during a discussion with insider Tim Kawakami (8:20 mark). “It’s not a matter of them having animosity toward one another, but they were rivals. Their camps didn’t always love the way that the other player was talked about. LeBron’s people did not love it when people started calling Steph the best player in the world. There was a tension that was real.”
Curry’s Golden State Warriors and James’ Cleveland Cavaliers faced each other in four consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 through 2018 during one of the most memorable stretches in NBA history.
While Curry took home three of the four Larry O’Brien Trophies from those showdowns, Cleveland defeated the record-setting 73-win Warriors during the 2016 Finals in large part because of James’ individual brilliance.
But Curry earned some bragging rights with back-to-back MVPs in 2014-15 and 2015-16 as he cemented himself as the best shooter in NBA history.
Ultimately, they are both future Hall of Famers and NBA legends who helped define a generation. They both have four championships and will be remembered as all-time greats, although it is James and not Curry who is in GOAT discussions and arguments involving Michael Jordan.
They are now friends who are in the latter portion of their careers, and James even opened up about their relationship.
“LeBron versus Steph, they should never smile against each other on the court,” the King said, per Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. “They should hate each other. We get it. We understand that a lot of y’all maybe grew up in a (Larry) Bird-Magic (Johnson) era and they shouldn’t like each other, but I’m also old enough to know that Isiah (Thomas) and Magic hugged each and kissed each other on the floor too because it was just mutual respect. You know what I’m saying?
“I’m also old enough to know that they say Michael (Jordan) never talked to any of his opponents, but I’m also smart enough to know that him and Charles (Barkley) had a lot of conversations during the ’93 Finals and also played golf once against each other.”
The on-court rivalry is surely still there and reached a peak during the stretch of NBA Finals showdowns, but the friendship was clear during the Olympics. And a gold medal probably only strengthened it.
