Basket Ball Z: The NBA’s finest and their Dragon Ball counterparts
Steph Curry — Teen Gohan
When DBZ starts off, Gohan is just a young boy that’s honestly a bit of a crybaby. Goku dies in the early episodes of the show, Piccolo takes Gohan under his wing and they begin a rigorous training program. Piccolo doesn’t mess around. He puts five year-old Gohan through the ringer and even abandons him in the wilderness to fend for himself. Not your average guardian that Piccolo! Despite the spartan demeanor, Piccolo helps Gohan unlock his incredible fighting talent. By the time he’s a teenager, he can keep up with all the other Z fighters. The show’s characters constantly rave about his potential. But Gohan doesn’t have the insatiable thirst for battle that guys like Goku and Vegeta have.
Gohan has a few moments where he lets go of his restraints, but he’s generally a gentle dude that feels bad about kicking peoples’ butts. Nobody, except Goku, recognizes that Gohan actually has the potential to surpass all of the Z fighters’ power until the battle with Cell though. And boy does he surpass them. Cell cruelly goads Gohan throughout the fight, until Gohan finally snaps. And then out of nowhere…
He goes Super Saiyan 2 and proceeds to wipe the floor with Cell for the better part of an hour. Gohan basically beats him twice after Cell pulls some regeneration shenanigans.
When Curry entered the NBA he was just a scrawny dude with microscopic stubble on his chin that had captured our hearts during Davidson’s NCAA Tournament runs. His ridiculous shooting touch was obvious even then (sup David Kahn), but nobody ever saw his transformation into a top two or three NBA player coming. Steph just didn’t seem like that kind of star; early in his career he was part of some crappy Golden State teams and had constant ankle issues. Throughout his first five seasons he never made the Western All-Star team (no shame of course). Every now and then we saw some flashes of profound greatness though. His 54 point barrage at MSG and his valiant playoff performances against the Spurs back in 2013 are but a few of those moments.
In 2014-15, under the guidance of Coach Kerr, Steph played the unconstrained style he was meant to play for the first time in his career. Since then he has gone full on Super Saiyan 2, played with an inspiring freedom and destroyed almost everyone in his path. He has made the impossible routine at this point.