Steph Curry has added another NBA honor to his already impressive resume.
The four-time champion and two-time league MVP was voted the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year for the 2023-24 season, beating out Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, TNT analyst Charles Barkley reported Thursday. .
Curry received 45 of 99 first-place votes and beat DeRozan by 26 points overall.
Last season, the NBA introduced the Clutch Player of the Year award, given to the player who “does the best for his teammates in the Clutch.” The recipient of the award – Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox became the first last year – receives the Jerry West Trophy, named after the Los Angeles Lakers legend who earned the nickname “Mr. Clutch.” for his dead shot at the end of close games.
Curry joined TNT’s “NBA Tip-Off” pregame show after the announcement and was asked about what it means to win an award named in honor of West, who helped make the Warriors eternal contenders for the championship.
“His basketball career on the court speaks for itself,” Curry said of Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. “I think he just got into the Naismith Hall of Fame for the third time for a third different reason, so his resume is what it is, but when you see him in person you realize how how much basketball means to him, how competitive he is is how much he wants to win, no matter what seat he’s in, and that rubbed off on our organization back when we were trying. to find us as a championship contender. So every time Jerry West says something, you’re going to listen.
In 142.9 decisive minutes – or the period where the score is within five points with five minutes or less to play – Curry has scored a league-leading 189 points with 32 3-pointers. The 36-year-old also shot 49.6 percent from the field in crucial minutes, with several game-winners coming from his hot hand in 2023-24.
Early in his NBA career, Curry faced a narrative that he wasn’t a clutch player, but this latest honor dispels that notion.
“You have to be able to handle failure,” Curry told the TNT crew when asked what allows him to succeed in decisive moments. “…You have to be OK with the shot you miss and have a short memory. I don’t know if anything clicked, other than knowing how much time you put into the game, and with that time comes the time earned confidence – “OK, I’m ready for whatever moment you’re in, whatever photo you need to take.”
“Everyone remembers the highlights and so on, but there are a lot of shots that you miss and you leave the field thinking, ‘Yeah, that was a good shot, I should have taken it and I wish I had,” but you move on to what’s next. You have to have a little bit of amnesia in there, and that’s the only way you can keep looking back on those moments with the same kind of confidence.
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