The Deets: What’s lost in the never-ending Lillard vs. Curry debate

Stephen Curry or Damian Lillard was a fun conversation during quarantine, but this kind of debate hurts the game of basketball now that games are being played.

We just did this a week ago. And a few months ago. And a year ago. And the year before that.

A lot of things have changed in the world recently, but we can’t seem to get rid of “Steph Curry or Damian Lillard?”

The scripted morning debate shows and Twitter trolls have riddled it 1,000 different ways by now. Who’s the better point guard? Who is the better deep shooter? Who would you rather have with the game on the line?

It’s a tired debate, rife with biases — the most blatant being recency bias.

And while there’s nothing wrong with a solid player comparison debate from time to time, this never-ending Curry or Lillard conversation that’s pushed by commentators and well-paid opiners is straight-up bad for the sport.

The conversation we should have been having Tuesday should have been about Lillard going semi-nuclear again. The dude can do no wrong in the bubble. It should have been about how his No. 8 seed Portland Trail Blazers upset the title-favorite Lakers on Monday night. It should have been about the tactics both teams need to deploy to seize control of the series in a big Game 2 tonight.

It should have been about the game and the performances in the game.

What does Curry have to do with any of that? My man is sitting at home in Atherton.

All it took was an off-the-cuff comment by a TNT analyst and a clap-back tweet by Curry to seize the overall narrative and steer it towards the same old debate. That’s all that was necessary to overshadow a wildly entertaining game.

It’d be one thing if situations like Tuesday’s were rare, but they seem to be the default these days.

I know that we just came off a stretch of a few months without games and these shows needed to come up with something to talk about. Comparisons like Curry vs. Lillard came in handy, but now that the games have returned, is it too much to talk about them?

Maybe exiting the hypothetical realm and discussing real-world events get fans actually excited to watch the games. That’s been a big issue for the NBA as of late.

Curry is an all-time great and a Hall of Famer. He’s the backbone of a true sports dynasty. In my opinion, he’s the most influential player — for better or worse — of the century. These NBA playoffs are worse without him.

But these playoffs do have Lillard, who is also going to be enshrined in Springfield one day. He’s putting a flawed-but-talented Portland team on his back in Florida, earning all sorts of worthy accolades in the process.

Player comparison debates miss the point. Both players are great. Both players are still writing their legacies. But by pitting them against each other in increasingly wild hypothetical scenarios it creates a tacit sense of mutual exclusivity — that only one of them can be great while the other is a scrub.

That, of course, couldn’t be further removed from reality, but seems to be the point.

I’m over it.

I’ll keep enjoying watching Lillard go dumb.

I’ll keep watching highlights of Curry doing things that made me fall in love with the sport of basketball all over again, hoping that more moments like that will brighten our futures soon.

I’ll be hanging out in reality, living in the moment.

There’s some pretty interesting stuff happening around these parts if you want to join me.

What We Learned

Angels 2 – Giants 7… A clean, professional win for the Giants, who needed a contest like that, even coming off a win… Was that Johnny Cueto’s last start with the Giants? I think all parties involved — the team, the player, and the fans — hope so. Cueto has one year and $22 million remaining on his Giants’ contract. San Francisco doesn’t need to move off that money (though I’m sure ownership wouldn’t mind), so any deal would be all about prospect return. Is this the high point of Cueto’s trade value? Perhaps. But looking at the data, this kind of form might be sustainable… Cueto was sharp as cheddar Wednesday night. His new three-pitch arsenal — a four-seam fastball thrown high in the zone, a solid change, and now a curveball he is throwing 28 percent of the time — is working. It’s an impressive re-invention for the veteran, who used to throw his slider and sinker far more often and rarely threw the curve, and the new combinations are allowing him to miss barrels in a big way… The Giants, on the whole, keep hitting lefty pitchers in a big way — anytime they see a southpaw on the mound, it’s Pretzel Day. Monday was no exception.

Diamondbacks 1 – A’s 4… Jesus Luzardo is the truth. His changeup was nasty on Wednesday and that made him downright dominating into the seventh. At 22 years old, he’s the ace this team so desperately needed. And Wednesday, he provided good vibes to a team that — despite their fantastic record — needed them… Also providing good vibes? Robbie Grossman. The outfielder is torrid in August, slashing an absurd .283/.476/.717. Those are Mike Trout numbers.

What to Watch

NBA Draft Lottery, 5:30 p.m… The moment we’ve been waiting for since Curry broke his hand what seems like 50 years ago. Where will the Bucks — sorry, the Sixers… no, the Warriors — pick in this year’s draft?

Diamondbacks at A’s, 6:40 p.m… Sean Manaea hasn’t pitched as poorly as his baseball-card numbers suggest and that suggests he’s in for some positive regression. But he needs to start finding the zone early in counts for that to happen.

Angels at Giants, 6:45 p.m… Back-to-back Pretzel Days? No, the Giants aren’t dreaming.