David Griffin Says LeBron James Is More Valuable to Team, NBA Than Stephen Curry
Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry may have unanimously won the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award, but Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin has a different definition of the word "valuable."
Asked Thursday on The Jim Rome Show (h/t Kenny Ducey of Sports Illustrated) who was more valuable between Curry and LeBron James, Griffin said it's the Cavs forward "if we're really talking about who's carrying" his team and the NBA.
The argument is interesting from a contextual standpoint. Some may jump to improper conclusions. At no point during the interview did Griffin say Curry did not deserve to win the MVP. He's the first unanimous NBA MVP in the award's history for a reason.
James has carried the burden of being the NBA's best player and most visible face for the better part of a decade. His off-the-court earnings dwarf any other player's, and he's among the biggest worldwide ambassadors the game has seen since Michael Jordan.
Curry is still a neophyte in those areas. His endorsements are skyrocketing after two historically great seasons, and it's becoming rapidly apparent he's James' successor in the other areas. But in terms of value to the NBA, it's fair to say James eclipses Curry—for now.
Griffin's comments also piggyback a bit on what James said publicly Wednesday.
"I think sometimes the word 'valuable' or best player of the year, you can have different results," James said, per the Associated Press' Tom Withers. "You know, that's not taking anything from anyone that's ever won the award."
So, in many ways, this is an innocuous comment that threatens to be twisted in the wrong way. The Cavaliers were 1-5 in regular-season games James sat out. The Warriors are 6-3 in regular-season and postseason games in which Curry was on the bench because of injury.
James' net on/off rating was plus-16.5; Curry's was plus-22.2, per Basketball-Reference.com. You can cherry-pick stats from all over the web and find different definitions of value.
Either way, the only correct answer is this: James and Curry are both awesome at basketball and irreplaceable to their teams and the league.
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