It has been said that truly great athletes not only achieve excellence in their sport and win lots of championships, but they also change the game.
The description seems to be a good fit for Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who has gone from a great player to one of the all-time greats over the last several years.
He has not only won two regular season MVP awards, two scoring titles, and four NBA championships, but he is also the greatest outside shooter in the history of the game.
Curry spoke with WIRED about his legacy and how he has impacted the game of basketball, and he mentioned how he has helped change the game for the better.
About 20 years ago, the NBA was a stagnant, plodding league in which almost every team walked the ball up the court, milked the shot clock, and kept scores as low as possible.
A few teams such as the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns looked to change that prevailing style by playing an up-tempo game and shooting lots of 3-pointers, but throughout the 2000s, that strategy was dismissed as a mere gimmick.
When the Warriors won their first world title of the Curry era in 2015, they did so by playing fast-break basketball, moving the ball around in their set offense, and launching plenty of outside shots with little or no hesitation.
The rest of the league quickly realized that playing that way does indeed work, and within a few short years, most teams had employed that style to at least some extent.
This past season, NBA teams scored an average of 114.7 points per game as the 3-point shots came early and often, and they have Curry and Golden State to thank for giving them permission to do so.