For four consecutive seasons (2015–2018), the Golden State Warriors and LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers faced off in the NBA Finals. The Dubs prevailed in three of the series.

Curry said on Wednesday that he had “healthy resentment” for James during their NBA title rivalry, but he also expressed his “utmost respect” for him.

Curry reportedly added, “It was like a healthy resentment of somebody that’s standing in your way,” according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “But through it all, like there’s obviously the utmost respect for who he is as a person and a player and like how good he is and the challenge of trying to beat him and trying to solve that problem every year.”

James concurred, according to Vardon, when “a reporter suggested an apparent rivalry existed between him and Curry years ago.” James, though, likewise resisted a media narrative that implied the two “should hate each other.”

James remarked, “Basketball games don’t last forever.” “You don’t want to waste the opportunity to be able to have a relationship with someone.”

Curry and James most definitely have that opportunity now. Before they signed up to James’ All-Star squad in 2021, they had never played together. Currently, they are both competing for the United States to win the gold medal in men’s basketball for the fifth time in a row. This is James’ fourth Olympic Games (2004, 2008, 2012), and Curry’s first.

These two have been leading the team’s exhibition games thus far, going undefeated. Before the team plays Serbia on July 28 in earnest, there are still two left.