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LeBron James, Steph Curry had a 'healthy resentment' — Olympics offer something new
Follow our Olympics coverage in the lead-up to the Paris Games.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — LeBron James was genuinely thrilled to see Stephen Curry in that Bellagio hotel ballroom in Las Vegas on the eve of Team USA training camp.
Born in the same Akron, Ohio, hospital nearly four years apart, co-authors of the last great NBA rivalry, co-inhabitants of the league’s C Suite as the two most famous, respected and decorated active players, they were to join up as co-chief executives of the American Olympic team as teammates for the first time, outside of a meaningless All-Star Game.
“’Bout time, ’bout (expletive) time,” James, in a denim jacket and do-rag, said to Curry, wearing a plain white T and a black vest, when they saw each other the night of July 5, with cameras rolling and a boom mic hanging over them.
It was nearly one year ago, in late August 2023, when James called Curry to see if he was interested in joining him on the Olympic team. Now, granted, at the time of the call, there was no Olympic team yet. USA Basketball was engaged in the FIBA World Cup, a wholly separate team and event, and it is typically not up to players as to who makes the 12-man roster for any U.S. national team.
But a player the caliber of James, or Curry? If they say they want to play for Team USA, they aren’t going to be told no.
James, 39, has played 21 NBA seasons, is the sport’s all-time scoring king, a four-time champion (on three different teams; no one had led three franchises to titles before James did it), a four-time MVP and a league-record 20-time All-Star. James co-anchored the Redeem Team in 2008 and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, as well as USA Basketball’s all-time assists leader. He is, and has been for many years, widely considered the “face” of the NBA.
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Curry, 36, has changed in 15 NBA seasons how the game is played — not only in the NBA, or America, but also around the world. He revolutionized the sport with a relentless aerial assault of 3-pointers, making (and shooting) more of them than any other NBA player ever, though it would be selling him way short to simply call him a great shooter. Curry encapsulates greatness as a winner (four NBA championships), performer (two-time MVP, 10-time All-Star) and as the steward of the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty.
The two of them wearing USA jerseys at the same time, sharing the same practice courts at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, or at New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi, or on the biggest sports stage in the world, the Paris Olympics, is or will be a surreal sight for anyone privileged enough to see it, including their teammates.
“It’s just cool, I’m not going to lie,” said Tyrese Haliburton, a Team USA guard at the tender age of 24. “It’s pretty dope just for me, like when I was a kid, just watching those guys playing the finals every year. I think the more time I’m around them, the more I’ll hear stories and stuff, and that’ll be really cool because those are things that I probably wondered about when I was 15, 16.”
Will Haliburton hear about when James and Curry didn’t like each other too much? Unlikely, but it happened.
Perhaps measuring the relationship in terms of “like” or “dislike” is the wrong metric. When Curry was starring in college at Davidson, and leading the small school on a ride through the NCAA Tournament in 2008, James, already an established megastar, attended one of Curry’s games. When Curry was a rookie with Golden State in 2009-10, James invited him to his house in suburban Cleveland on an off night for the Warriors and Cavs. Curry said he could call on James occasionally for advice.
LeBron James congratulates Stephen Curry after the 2017 NBA Finals. The two stars met in four straight finals from 2015 to 2018. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
But from 2015 through 2018, James’ Cavs and Curry’s Warriors met every June in the NBA Finals. The first three of those series were remarkably tense, and the stress spilled onto how James, and the people close to him, thought of Curry at the time, and vice versa.
In 2015, James’ short-handed Cavs took a 2-1 series lead, only to be overcome and outlasted by a healthier, deeper Warriors team. The next year, Cleveland became the only team to ever recover from a 3-1 deficit in a finals to win; James spearheaded the comeback. And then Curry recruited Kevin Durant to the Warriors, and while they beat Cleveland in five games the following finals, the series turned on Durant’s 31 points in Game 3, including a game-winning 3-pointer over James.
From the end of the ’15 finals, just about until the nanosecond the Cavs won in ’16, people close to James often scoffed at Curry’s rising star, suggesting that Curry unfairly escaped the scrutiny James was constantly under. In an extended celebration of the 2016 championship, James hosted a Halloween party the following October with cookies decorated as tombstones, with Curry (and, to be fair, other Warriors stars) engraved on the treat.
On the other side, people close to Curry often pointed out how much drama seemed to follow James’ teams, whether it was on the Cavs, or even before that in Miami. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2016, Curry’s Warriors played their first game in Cleveland since clinching the ’15 finals there seven months earlier, and Curry infamously quipped about the visitors locker room: “Hopefully, it still smells a little bit like champagne.” After the Warriors won in 2017, Curry was caught on a cell phone video at Harrison Barnes’ wedding mocking James as a dancer — with James’ about-to-be former teammate Kyrie Irving laughing hysterically.
Both Curry and James acknowledged that there was a certain tension between them that has dissipated.
“It was like a healthy resentment of somebody that’s standing in your way,” Curry said. “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 nodded in agreement when a reporter suggested an apparent rivalry existed between him and Curry years ago, though he said the idea that “they should hate each other” was a false media narrative. James went on to explain why he wanted to make sure it never came to that between him and Curry.
“The game of basketball don’t last forever,” James said. “You don’t want to waste the opportunity to be able to have a relationship with someone.”
Team USA gives LeBron James and Stephen Curry a rare opportunity to be teammates. “There’s obviously the utmost respect for who he is as a person and a player,” Curry says. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
James said he and Curry “understand” that NBA fans, and media, for that matter, of a certain age still viewed how players should act toward each other through the lens of the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson rivalry of the 1980s, or of Michael Jordan’s contempt for virtually all opponents when he dominated the 1990s.
“A lot of y’all maybe grew up in the Bird-Magic era and we shouldn’t like each other, but I’m also (aware) enough to know that Isiah (Thomas) and Magic hugged and kissed each other on the floor too because it was just mutual respect,” James said. “They say Michael never talked to any of his opponents, but I’m also smart enough to know that him and Charles (Barkley) had a lot of conversations during the ’93 finals and also played golf against each other.
“So I don’t want to lose those moments (with Curry).”
James and Curry have said over the last two weeks that they’ve enjoyed watching each other in practice, gleaning how each transcendental superstar goes about his work and learning more about who they are (or, to be more precise, who they’ve become since those finals battles) off the court.
Durant, another Team USA superstar, said the relationship between James and Curry is stronger because of the tension from the previous decade, when they commanded record TV audiences in June and otherwise co-opted the center of the basketball universe, with split headquarters in Cleveland and San Francisco.
“He ain’t young Steph no more, and he’s not the Bron that you were looking up to no more — you become competitors,” Durant said, explaining how he viewed whatever it was that used to exist between James and Curry. “I think that respect level goes up even more. I think they became better friends now than they were when they went through that experience, competing with one another and being rivals, if you call it that.
“You could see that, you can see how much they respect one another.”
It is about (expletive) time.
GO DEEPER
Anthony Davis’ solid play for Team USA creates a tough question for Steve Kerr
(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Giuseppe Cacase / AFP / Getty Images, Joe Murphy / NBAE / Getty Images)
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The highly anticipated 30th WNBA season tipped off Friday with three games, including the expansion Toronto Tempo’s first-ever contest.
The action continued Saturday with a full slate, including Caitlin Clark’s return after an injury-riddled sophomore season.
Clark and the Indiana Fever hosted the Dallas Wings on Saturday afternoon in a matchup featuring the four most recent No. 1 overall picks. The Wings outlasted the Fever 107-104, but the game was defined by Azzi Fudd’s — the most recent top pick — underwhelming debut.
Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers react during the first half of the Fever’s season opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on May 9, 2026. (Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Fudd played 18 minutes off the bench, scoring three points — the lowest ever by a No. 1 overall pick in a WNBA debut.
Wings coach Jose Fernandez addressed Fudd’s performance after the game, encouraging the rookie to, “Keep doing what she’s doing, it’s her first year in the league. We got five really talented backcourt players.”
EX-WNBA STAR CRITICAL OF SKY ROOKIE HAILEY VAN LITH, BELIEVES POPULARITY PLAYED ROLE IN DRAFT SELECTION
In addition to Fudd, Dallas’ backcourt features last year’s top draft pick Paige Bueckers, last season’s No. 12 overall pick Aziaha James, four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale and starting guard Odyssey Sims.
Until Saturday, Kelsey Plum held the record for the lowest-scoring debut by a No. 1 pick. Selected first overall by the then-San Antonio Stars in 2017, she scored just four points in her debut. The Stars relocated to Las Vegas in 2018 and was subsequently rebranded as the Aces.
Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd warms up before the game against the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2026. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Despite the slow start to her first season in the league, Plum ended the year with All-Rookie team honors. In the years since, she’s been named to four All-Star teams and won two championships with the Aces.
The Wings’ decision to take Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick drew controversy, raising questions about whether Bueckers’ personal relationship with her influenced the selection. Late last month, Bueckers said last month it did not.
Azzi Fudd poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected first overall by the Dallas Wings during the 2026 WNBA Draft at The Shed in New York City on April 13, 2026. (Angelina Katsanis/Getty Images)
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“Azzi Fudd was the No. 1 draft pick because she earned it, and it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with who she is as a human being, who she is as a basketball player,” Bueckers said, according to ESPN.
Neither Bueckers nor Fudd has publicly updated their relationship status since the April draft.
“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers also said in April. “And what we choose to share is completely up to us.”
Next up, the Wings play their home opener on Tuesday when they host the Atlanta Dream.
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The Lakers are one playoff defeat from their season being over and from the conversation turning to LeBron James’ future.
They are in a hole no team has climbed out of in the history of the NBA, the Lakers’ 131-108 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 putting L.A. down 3-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.
James and his teammates gave a gallant effort Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, but the defending champion proved to be more than the Lakers could handle.
James finished his night with 19 points on seven-for-19 shooting, eight assists and six rebounds. Rui Hachimura had 21 points and Austin Reaves finished with 17 points and nine assists.
Even so, the Lakers have now lost all three games by double digits.
And the Lakers are fully aware that no NBA team has successfully come back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs, with those teams holding a 161-0 record. Only four teams have forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0, all of which ultimately lost the series, including the Boston Celtics in 2023.
Lakers forward LeBron James shows frustration as Thunder center Chet Holmgren slam dunks during Game 3 on Saturday night.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Game 4 is Monday night, when the Lakers will try to stave off elimination and a night that will determine how the conversations go with James if they lose.
James has been frequently asked this season about retirement, but he has not given any indication of what the future holds for him.
He’s 41 years old and playing in an NBA-record 23rd season.
James is in the final year of his contract that pays him $52 million, making him a free agent this offseason. He can retire, join another team or perhaps return to the Lakers next season.
That will be the conversation if the Lakers can’t win Game 4.
They will see the same Thunder team that had seven players score in double figures, led by Ajay Mitchell’s 24 points and 10 assists and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 23 points and nine assists.
The Lakers went down 13 in the third quarter and had to play catchup the rest of the way. They never did, going down by 112-94 with 6 minutes and 12 seconds left, forcing Lakers coach JJ Redick to call a timeout.
The deficit just kept growing, topping out at 27 points in the fourth.
They were outscored 33-20 in the third quarter. The Lakers didn’t take care of the basketball in the third, turning it over six times, and they didn’t play good defense, allowing the Thunder to shoot 59.1% from the field and 55.6 percent from three-point range,
The Lakers did not give an inch to the Thunder in the first half, even when they fell behind by 10 points.
They just kept grinding until they led 59-57 at halftime.
Hachimura had 16 points in the first half, continuing his hot three-point shooting by making all four of his threes. Luke Kennard came off the bench to give the Lakers 13 points, shooting five for six from the field and three for four from three-point range.
The Lakers kept the pressure defense on Gilgeous-Alexander. Though he had 14 points in the first half, he shot only four for 14 from the field and one for five from three-point range.
The Lakers shot 55% from three-point range in the first half, which went a long way in helping them.
The Lakers lost the first two games by identical margins of 18 points and each loss was magnified because Gilgeous-Alexander was kept under wraps for the most part by L.A.’s defense.
When Gilgeous-Alexander picked up his fourth foul with 10:34 left in the third quarter of Game 2 and went to the bench, the Thunder turned a five-point lead into a 13-point advantage at the end of the quarter.
So, when he wasn’t on the court, the Lakers failed to take advantage.
“Well, you know, again, I’ll repeat what I said after the game: we’ve got to be better in the non-Shai minutes,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Role players like Mitchell and Jared McCain hurt the Lakers in the second game. Chet Holmgren also was hard to deal with.
“Mitchell and McCain have hurt us in those non-Shai minutes, and then Chet [Holmgren] has hurt us the whole game,” Redick said. “I think you’ve got to be willing to live with something. Shai playing one-on-one, thus far in the series, we haven’t been willing to live with, so you’re going to be in rotation. That can lead to smalls on bigs at the hole, and the offensive rebounding from Chet has really hurt us.”
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In 2025, Alex Palou kicked off the Month of May with a Sonsio Grand Prix win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Based on the odds, it’s likely that Palou will find himself in Winner’s Circle again this Saturday when INDYCAR goes back to IMS on May 9 (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
Considering Palou has already captured the checkered flag three times this season, are there any other drivers whose odds are worth a wager?
Here are the latest lines at DraftKings Sportsbook as of May 9.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
Sonsio Grand Prix 2026
Àlex Palou: 5/18 (bet $10 to win $12.78 total)
Kyle Kirkwood: 5/1 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Pato O’Ward: 12/1 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
David Malukas: 14/1 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Josef Newgarden: 16/1 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Scott McLaughlin: 20/1 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Christian Lundgaard: 30/1 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Scott Dixon: 40/1 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Will Power: 60/1 (bet $10 to win $610 total)
Felix Rosenqvist: 80/1 (bet $10 to win $810 total)
Alexander Rossi: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Marcus Ericsson: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Marcus Armstrong: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Christian Rasmussen: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Graham Rahal: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Louis Foster: 300/1 (bet $10 to win $3,010 total)
Dennis Hauger: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Romain Grosjean: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Santino Ferrucci: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Rinus Veekay: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Kyffin Simpson: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Caio Collet: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Sting Ray Robb: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Nolan Siegel: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Mick Schumacher: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Here’s what to know about the oddsboard:
Heavy Favorite: It doesn’t look like Alex Palou’s dominance will be slowing down anytime soon. As noted above, he’s already won three of the five races since the INDYCAR season started in March. With 186 laps led, Palou sits first in the standings and has the shortest odds to win the title again. Last season, he started from the pole and led 29 laps before winning the race.
Long Shot to Watch: While his odds of 150/1 to win at IMS are much longer than Palou’s, Graham Rahal is one to watch. At this race in 2025, he started second and led 49 laps before finishing sixth. He finished second at this course in 2015, 2020 and 2023. He’s currently 10th in the INDYCAR standings, with one top five and three top 10s.
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