"We did it! We did it!"
Buttocks on the mythical floor of the Garden, misty eyes, after a still masterful performance (34 pts), Curry was inevitably overcome by emotion.
Then shared with Dell, his father, a former outstanding shooter to whom he owes the best three-point scorer in history.
Logically, with 31.2 points on average, he was named MVP of the final, for the first time, at 34, making his career a little more prodigious.
Not that he was missed, repeatedly succeeding in high-flying matches, but Andre Iguodala in 2015, then Kevin Durant in 2017 and 2018, had been more consistent.
So much so that the label of the player unable to raise his level in the most crucial games stuck to the skin of the leader, yet crowned with two MVP trophies in the regular season (2015, 2016).
Imperial almost all along, he had been stratospheric in match N.4, his masterclass (43 pts)
in the volcano of the TD Garden, suddenly extinguished, having righted his team which could not afford to be trailing 3-1.
Stephen Curry attacks the basket during the Warriors' victory over the Celtics in the NBA Finals on June 16, 2022 in Boston.
POOL GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
A blue wall
His only false note was 0/9 behind the arc in the next game, a first for him in 133 play-off matches.
But no matter, with him, this type of mishap never happens twice in a row and he was able to react like a champion on Thursday with a 6/11 (12/21 in total, 7 rebounds, 7 assists).
Apart from a very early game to the advantage of the Celtics (14-2), the Dubs have mastered their subject.
Their defense was iron, causing 22 lost green balls, while winning the rebound battle (29 including 15 offensive).
In ten minutes, they inflicted a 35-8 in Boston, KO standing like his public yet boiling until then, succeeding in passing a 21-0, unheard of in the final in 50 years.
The Celtics perpetually returned to this blue wall, despite a start, in the wake of Jaylen Brown (34 pts) who brought them down to -8 for a time.
But each time a Warrior answered.
The "Dubs", who won the series 4-2, spectacularly revive a dynasty started in 2015, with a title gleaned that year and two more in 2017 and 2018, while having lost in the 2016 and 2019 finals. had won two first rings when they played in Philadelphia (1947 and 1956) and a third, in the jersey of Golden State, in 1975.
Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry at a press conference with his first NBA Finals Most Valuable Player trophy on June 16, 2022 in Boston.
ELSA GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
This return to the top of the NBA was not expected eight months ago, when the championship started.
Because the Warriors were coming out of two dark years, weighed down by the departure of Kevin Durant, the many injuries, including those, serious, which struck down Klay Thompson, victim of ruptures to a cruciate ligament and the right Achilles tendon.
9th ring for Kerr
The latter, absent from the prosecution for 941 days, made his return this year.
And if he has not quite returned to the diabolical shooter he was, as evidenced by his 12 points (at 5/20), he symbolizes the resurrection of Golden State.
The Splash Brothers are not the only ones to hang a fourth ring on their finger, to join the club of LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal and other Tony Parkers, since the "Warrior" Draymond Green (12 pts, 12 rebounds, 8 assists ), pivot Keyvon Looney and veteran Andre Igodala accompany them.
For Steve Kerr, architect of the Warriors dynasty, this coronation as a coach is also the fourth, to which are added five others from his time as a player, three with Michael Jordan's Bulls (1996, 1997, 1998) and two with Gregg Popovich's Spurs (1999, 2003).
He managed to rebuild a competitive and winning group, with young people like Andrew Wiggins, who had reached maturity, Jordan Poole, Gary Payton II or even Otto Porter Jr, to whom the stars passed on their "champion DNA".
Steve Kerr (r.) after the Warriors victory in the NBA Finals on June 16, 2022 in Boston.
This title is the 9th in the career of the Golden State coach (five as a player, four as a coach).
Adam Glanzman GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
"This DNA, we can't really teach it. Our framework and our way of playing is what makes us unique and different", said, rightly, Curry before this final.
© 2022 AFP