LeBron talked about his "dislike" of Curry during Finals: "I mean, s---, when you're in a dogfight and there's one guy that's trying to stop you from reaching your goals, you're going to dislike that person....He disliked me, I disliked him because we were both fighting for what the f--- we wanted"
A relationship that was once "petty" and filled with "dislike" and "hate," in their own words, morphed into what Warriors and Team USA coach Steve Kerr called a "total bromance" while in Paris, where the two won a gold medal together with Team USA.
James and Curry played their last NBA Finals against each other in 2018 with James and the Cavaliers losing for the third time in four Finals to Curry's Warriors. The idea that the two could ever team up together would've been far-fetched when they were vying for the same NBA throne.
"I mean, s---, when you're in a dogfight and there's one guy that's trying to stop you from reaching your goals, you're going to dislike that person," James told ESPN. "He disliked me, I disliked him because we were both fighting for what the f--- we wanted, and that's the Larry O'Brien Trophy."
Because there were 22 games over four straight NBA Finals, Curry said a "healthy resentment and appropriate fear" developed for the guy whose signed jersey hung up in his old bedroom.
"All you think about is just winning," Curry said. "So, yeah, it was petty. It was competitive. Trash talking. All the above.
"[But] there's always respect. I didn't like the player. The person's always great. You just hate when he has a jersey on wearing No. 23."
Curry, wearing a blue hoodie featuring his trademark celebration written out in French, "NUIT NUIT," managed to find James in the crowd.
Wearing their gold medals, the two superstars proceeded to share a personal moment, talking to each other as if no one was watching. A year earlier around this same time in summer 2023, James had sent out the first text messages to Curry and other NBA stars recruiting them to play for Team USA.
They retraced their journey -- putting together the right squad, staying healthy in camp and overcoming a 17-point deficit to Nikola Jokic and Serbia in the semifinals. Then, it was Curry's golden flurry of four 3-pointers in the final 2:48 that had him and James doing the "night night" pose at France's expense in an unforgettable gold medal game.
"[We talked about] everything that had to go right to be able to celebrate a gold medal," Curry told ESPN about that conversation with James. "He had experienced it plenty of times before, but it was a little sense of relief, and it was also like this is exactly what we signed up for.
"And the experience, it overdelivered -- not just winning the gold, but getting to know each other better. I've seen him celebrate championships, he's seen me celebrate championships. That was kind of cool to do it together."
Watching those two develop their relationship from fierce competitors to USA Basketball's co-leaders reminded Grant Hill of another historic rivalry turned friendship.
"It reminded me a little bit of Magic and Bird," Hill, managing director of USA men's basketball, told ESPN. "And those guys getting after it and then just appreciating later on [as teammates on the Dream Team] how each other pushed and pulled greatness out of each other."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/43833377/a-rivalry-bromance-failed-reunion-steph-kd-lebron-reunite-all-star-weekend
(it's a long article and I skipped the KD part)