https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/jenkins/article/Steph-Curry-s-impact-on-the-record-book-Why-16712684.php

With Stephen Curry’s 3-point shooting record safely intact, the discussion turns to his legacy, and whether his record ever will be broken. Needless to say, it makes for lively debate.

Deferring to Draymond Green ’s perspective is always a good idea, and on a recent episode of “The Draymond Green Show,” he predicted that the record “will 100% be broken. From the time Steph is done playing, it will probably only take someone five to six more years to break that record, if that.” Green mentioned Trae Young and Donovan Mitchell entering the NBA “attempting six or seven 3-pointers per game. Steph came in attempting two or three per game. It’s just a totally different ballgame.”

At the risk of making no sense, I’m going the other way. Like Reggie Miller, who held the record until it was broken by Ray Allen, I’m saying he puts this record way out of reach. “Go to Vegas,” Miller told an amused Curry on a recent NBA TV special. “This is one NBA record that will never — you heard it — never be touched.”

Considering that Curry stands at 2,982 career 3-pointers and is easily on pace to surpass 400 this season, what’s to stop him from reaching 4,000? At 33, he’s in better shape than most players in today’s game. Nobody in the sporting realm works harder on conditioning and skills. It’s a basketball truism that as the aging process strips away one’s talent, the shot is always the last to go. Curry plays with such youthful joy, on a team with serious contention in its future, why wouldn’t he play five more seasons? Come to think of it, why wouldn’t 5,000 be within reach?

I don’t see Young or any other contemporary player passing Curry. No chance. Maybe the record-breaker is out on a playground somewhere, still in grade school. Curry’s dribbling expertise has spawned hundreds of sublime imitators (boys and girls; they’re all over YouTube), and as 76ers coach Doc Rivers said this past week, “You go to AAU games, and these kids are jacking up shots from halfcourt.” Everyone wants to be Curry, and because everyone could be, theoretically — as opposed to physically developing into a Shaquille O’Neal or LeBron James — the playing field is immense.

Then again, until further notice, Curry is absolutely a party of one. The record-breaker can’t be a one-dimensional type who lingers around the perimeter, waiting for a catch-and-shoot opportunity. He’ll need Curry’s hummingbird quickness to get open in traffic, spring free of screens, release that 3-pointer in an instant and do it off the dribble — a skill so refined that it sets Curry apart from every great shooter that came before. He’ll need to be comfortable shooting from 30-35 feet, because Curry started that trend, and it becomes a team-wrecking notion if you can’t drill it with consistency.

Maybe the record-breaker won’t have Curry’s sense of theater, the natural showmanship and connection with the crowd. Maybe he won’t have ballet aficionados linking his art to the world’s great dancers. Maybe he won’t have the killer instinct, often concealed but definitely there, or Curry’s sense of embracing the moment with full-hearted passion. It wouldn’t hurt to possess all those qualities, though. If there’s a kid out there with history in mind, he’d better be pretty special.
Disgrace in Brooklyn

Within an hour Saturday morning, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were placed in health-and-safety protocols by the Brooklyn Nets, giving the team nine such players ineligible to perform. The New York Daily News reported that Irving had returned a positive or inconclusive test, which requires five days of consecutive negative tests for unvaccinated players before are they allowed to practice.

The news arrived just a day after the Nets, shamefully abandoning any sense of principle, announced that Irving would become a part-time player. He’s not allowed to play in New York City, which requires people to be fully vaccinated to enter a public arena, nor could he perform in Toronto due to Canada’s strict entrance regulations. But he could play elsewhere on the road, including San Francisco (Jan. 29), which created a special exemption for visiting players at Chase Center — as long as they test negative.

“This is going to make us a better team,” said Nets general manager Sean Marks, and apparently that’s the only factor in play. The team originally ruled Irving completely out of their plans, cutting his salary in half, because it makes no sense to have an unvaccinated player so close to teammates, staff, fans or anyone else in close contact (not to mention routine disruption of the roster). Well, so much for health and safety. At a time when coronavirus cases are wildly out of control — as of Saturday morning, 52 NBA players had entered the protocols — the Nets are willing to bring Irving into the mix.

A few things in play:

• Don’t expect to see him on the court any time soon. It’s highly unlikely that Irving would be in proper condition to play in the Nets’ upcoming road games: Dec. 23 at Portland, Christmas Day against the Lakers and Dec. 27 against the Clippers. From that point on, through the first two weeks of January, Brooklyn’s only road games are Jan. 5 at Indiana and Jan. 12 at Chicago.

• Whenever Irving is allowed to practice, he can do so at the Nets’ facility because it has been designated a private facility.

• It’s a day-to-day scenario in sports’ COVID-19 whirlwind. Who’s to say that, by the time Kyrie does put on the uniform, the Nets’ roster won’t be reasonably restored? The Charlotte Hornets had four players in protocol in the first week of December, including LaMelo Ball, and they were at full strength for Friday night’s game against Portland.

• Durant runs the show in Brooklyn. He and James Harden (also in protocols at the moment) will be OK with Irving drifting in and out of the scene. Not so much with other players on the roster, getting crucial playing time in Irving’s absence and then hitting the bench — just along for the ride — when he shows up. Any notion of positive chemistry in this situation is completely far-fetched.

• Good luck in a playoff series against the Knicks or Raptors (could easily happen), with Irving unable to play at all. And let’s say it’s a titanic series against Milwaukee, where the Nets take a couple of tough road losses. Now they come home and Kyrie can’t play? Nice continuity.

• Nauseatingly self-centered as he is, Irving could reverse field and get vaccinated, then boostered, at the soonest opportunity. Oh, the horror. The humiliation! And yet, behind those simple acts, the Nets really could start thinking about a championship.