SPORTSPERSON of the YEAR STEPHEN CURRY

An elusive Finals MVP award. A long-awaited college degree. Continued charitable works. Stephen Curry accomplished it all and more-in 2022, reminding the world how to be a winner

- MICHAEL ROSENBERG

STEPHEN CURRY walked to the bench lugging a superstar's dilemma: He had played poorly, but his team was going to win. Seventy-nine seconds remained in Game 5 of an NBA Finals that had been framed to an illogical degree, in Curry's mind-as a referendum on Curry's career. If he was truly one of the best players of all time, why hadn't he won a Finals MVP award? Curry is driven by winning and by lifting others-motivations that are fraternal, not identical, twins. The Warriors would win this game, but he had not lifted them. Curry sat down next to coach Steve Kerr, at the intersection of pride and selflessness. He seemed, Kerr says, "pensive more than anything."

As much as ever, Curry was in the spotlight, and yet still people did not really see him. If he thinks about his place in history, he never says it, and he found the Finals MVP conversation annoying: "It bothered me that I had to answer to it. It didn't bother me that it wasn't on my résumé yet." The idea that he is lacking something is foreign to him. The implication that he needed to prove himself on the biggest stage was silly.

Curry is a boisterously ostentatious performer, and confidence is his oxygen. He once missed his first nine three-point attempts in a playoff game and when he sank the 10th he shimmied. As the Celtics finished off Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead, Curry told them to their faces to enjoy their last win. Then he told his childhood friend, Omar Carter, he wanted to celebrate in Boston-meaning the Warriors would win three straight and wrap up the title in Game 6. Now they had won Game 4 and were about to take Game 5 in San Francisco.

Kerr turned to his star.

"This is like the best thing that possibly could have happened," Kerr said.

"What do you mean?" Curry asked.

"We just won this game going away when you had a tough night," Kerr said. "Do you know how that makes Boston feel?"