NBA legend Julius Erving recently explained why Warriors star Stephen Curry is not on his Top-10 players of all-time list.

Julius Erving, Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

Stephen Curry is the greatest shooter to ever play in the NBA, and every single time he takes the court for the Golden State Warriors, he continues to redefine the game from 3-point range. Even though he’s accomplished more than enough to go down as one of the greatest players of his generation, not everyone has Curry on their all-time list, including Julius Erving.

Recently, Dr. J was asked who would be on his 10 greatest players of all-time list. He not only left Curry off this list, but he did not name LeBron James either, the league’s all-time leading scorer. In no particular order, Erving stated that Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone and Nate “Tiny” Archibald are the greatest players in league history.

When asked why he left Steph off of this list, Erving made it very clear that in order to be on his list, your career needs to be over. And in Curry’s case, he’s still too young.

“He hasn’t played long enough,” Erving said after naming Archibald to his all-time list over Curry. “He’s gotta finish his career. Everybody I named, their career is finished, right? LeBron, Steph, yeah. You know, people hate on me when I give them my list, but I put those first five, that just messes up everybody’s list. They’re always like, ‘You have to have someone from today!’ It’ll get finished.”

There really are no right or wrong answers when it comes to giving out your list of the best players of all-time, especially since there have been so many greats to play in the NBA. Even Steph himself has had trouble formulating his own list.

Nobody’s rankings are wrong, but it is hard to overlook Curry’s accomplishments and not claim that he is one of the best guards of all-time, that is if he isn’t already the best!

Now through 14 seasons, all of which have been with Golden State, Curry is a nine-time All-Star and nine-time All-NBA performer, a four-time champion, a two-time scoring champion, a two-time MVP, the only unanimous MVP in league history, and he finally captured his first NBA Finals MVP in 2022. In terms of records, Curry holds so many different scoring and 3-point records, as he sits at the very top of the NBA’s all-time 3-pointers list with 3,390 career threes and counting.

Perhaps the scary thing about Steph is that he is playing the best basketball of his career at 35 years old and has not really shown any signs of regression. As long as he can stay healthy, he will have the Warriors in a position to contend at the very top of the league, and he will inch closer to 4,000 threes for his career.
When he finally retires and calls it quits, maybe then Dr. J will recognize Steph Curry as one of the greatest, most impactful players in league history.