NBA superstars LeBron James and Stephen Curry have forged a close relationship in Team USA’s gold medal run during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Their pick-and-roll chemistry was so great in Paris, which led to NBA talking heads speculating about them teaming up in the NBA before they wind up their legendary careers.
But before this great synergy between them was “real tension” going back to James still at Cleveland and defining the NBA over the last decade.
The Athletic’s Sam Amick revealed James’ camp was not happy when the narrative shaped up during the Golden State Warriors’ dynastic run that Curry had become the best player, supplanting James.
Curry has a 3-1 record over James in their head-to-head in the NBA Finals.
“It was really surreal for me to watch he (Curry) and LeBron specifically just enjoy each other as much as they did (in the Olympics) because we were at all those Finals where — I don’t care what LeBron says now — it’s not a matter of them having animosity towards one another, but they were rivals,” Amick said on the recent episode of “The TK Show” podcast.
“Their camps didn’t always love the way that the other player was talked about.
“LeBron’s people did not love it when people started callin’ Steph the best player in the world, and there was a tension that was real.
“And then there were on-court moments, right, where LeBron, with his massive size, is kinda bodying Steph and making sure the world sees him as less than and kinda the small, younger guy.
“That dynamic was real. So, to go from that to these guys genuinely clicking and havin’ such a great time together was the kind of thing I never thought I’d see.”
With their respective teams no longer considered title contenders, the Warriors reportedly tried to pair James with Curry last February trade deadline.
However, James’ agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, quickly shut down the idea, per Substack’s NBA insider Marc Stein.
