By the standards of normal human measurements, Stephen Curry is tall. He’s 6 feet, 3 inches, which substantially outstrips the average height of a male as recorded by U.S. government data, a little more than 5 feet, 9 inches.
By the standards of normal human measurements, Kevin Durant is tall-plus. He’s 6 feet, 9 inches, but his wingspan (88 and 3/4 inches) is just about as broad as Shaquille O’Neal’s (91 inches). If you need a refresher on the immensity of Shaq, here he is standing next to President George W. Bush.
Unlike O’Neal, Durant, who plays the forward position for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder, is fleet of foot like the most agile of guards. “He moves like a gazelle,” ESPN’s scouting report of Durant read as he was exiting the University of Texas for the professional ranks.
For a shorter player to shoot over top of Durant is not only an act of geometric creativity, but great athleticism. This goes without mentioning the difficulty of actually making the basket—or in Curry’s case, the routine of it.
This is the Golden State Warriors guard, the two-time reigning Most Valuable Player of the NBA and the sport’s all-time marksman already at just age 28, moving on Durant beyond 30 feet from the hoop, dribbling between his legs to create a bit of breathing room to his right, and skipping an extra step to exhale. He releases the ball over the airborne Durant and his outstretched arm in the time it takes to begin the process of blinking. Blink too long and you miss the shot go in, or as TNT’s broadcast team described it, a “shot put”.
This is the reason why the Warriors, who won an NBA-record 73 regular season games, are so difficult to vanquish, even with Durant’s Thunder having had three opportunities in the last week to send Golden State home and advance to the NBA Finals to face the Cleveland Cavaliers.
As it were, the Warriors are headed to the championship round after winning their third consecutive game against Oklahoma City Monday night, prevailing 96-88 and taking their series with the Thunder four games to three.
LeBron James, who is 6 feet, 8 inches, awaits.
