Every player in the NBA Playoffs is seeking to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy, but there are also other things at stake. Players’ legacies are on the line, and Paul Pierce believes that the claim to be the best player of the era is up for grabs.

As LeBron James and Stephen Curry have their respective teams back in the postseason, Pierce thinks that if either of them wins the title in June, they’ll be able to claim that they’re the best player of their generation. In Curry’s case, the Golden State Warriors star would usurp James on his best players of all-time list and join the ranks of another all-time great. 

“In the LeBron era, he would’ve won his fifth title with pretty much three different squads — pre-[Kevin Durant], with KD and after KD,” Pierce said on FS1’s “Speak.” “Then, three of those championships he would’ve won without a top 75 player. In my eyes, he would’ve won this era with LeBron. 

“So, is he greater than LeBron? He won the era. In the LeBron era, [Curry could have] five chips and a unanimous MVP. That’s gotta hold some kind of weight. That’s never been done. If we’re talking about LeBron as the greatest player and a player in your era won a unanimous MVP, that’s going to shake something up. We gonna start putting Steph up there with Michael Jordan.” 

Entering the 2025 playoffs, James and Curry have each won four titles. James has more Finals MVPs than Curry, earning that honor each time he won a title, while Curry has only won Finals MVP once. However, Curry won three of the four Finals meetings between him and James. But James arguably had the most significant Finals win over those four battles, with the Cleveland Cavaliers coming back from a 3-1 deficit to be the 73-win Warriors to win the title in 2016.

That was the same year that Curry won the unanimous MVP that Pierce had mentioned, giving him two MVP awards. That was the first time in NBA history that a player had won an MVP unanimously, but James fell just a vote short of doing so in the 2012-13 season. That gave James his fourth career MVP as he holds the MVP edge over Curry, 4-2. 

Additionally, James has hit some historic landmarks that Curry seems unlikely to match. While no one in NBA history has made more 3-pointers than Curry, James is the NBA’s all-time scoring leader and no one has been named an All-Star more than him. He’s earned that honor 21 times, which is 10 more than Curry.

So, when you consider all of those feats, many all-time great lists not only have James ranked higher than Curry, but some even have the Los Angeles Lakers star as the player of all time. That’s part of the reason why Pierce actually believes that James is the star under the most pressure this postseason, with the other being that Luka Doncic’s presence should give the help James needs out of a co-star.

However, Pierce also thinks that James has a lot to gain if he gets over the hump to win his fifth title this postseason. 

“If LeBron wins one more championship, there’s gonna be more uncomfortable conversations,” Pierce said. “But LeBron, because of who he is — the game’s brightest star, is always going to be [the most under pressure] until he retires, just like Michael Jordan.”

Entering the postseason, it did seem like James’ Lakers squad had the easier road to the NBA Finals than Curry’s Warriors. Los Angeles was able to get the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference while Golden State needed to get a win in the play-in tournament in order to capture the No. 7 seed. If each team wins their first-round series, we’ll get the sixth playoff meeting all-time between James and Curry in the second round, with the Lakers getting home-court advantage in that potential matchup.

But the Lakers’ and Warriors’ respective Game 1s in the first round might challenge that notion. The sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves comfortably defeated the Lakers in Los Angeles on Saturday, winning 117-95 as James only put up 19 points. The Warriors, meanwhile, defeated the second-seeded Houston Rockets in a defensive slugfest on the road in Game 1, with Curry’s 31 points being enough for the victory.

Of course, both games were the first in a best-of-seven series, but Pierce believes that the Lakers should be worried after Game 1. 

“This is the thing I don’t understand: Game 1, at home, well-rested — everything was lined up for the Lakers in Game 1,” Pierce said. “They took care of business. They shored up the No. 3. You get LeBron the rest he needed, dealing with injury, and you come out and lay an egg. That’s the thing I don’t understand.”

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