Stephen Curry has another trophy to add to his mantel.
The 36-year-old Curry was named the 2023-24 Clutch Player of the Year. He finished with 45 of 99 first-place votes, edging out DeMar DeRozan at the ballot box.
Curry is the second winner of the award, which was won by Sacramento’s De’Aaron Fox in its inaugural year last season.
Curry led the NBA in total points scored in the clutch — defined as games within five points and under five minutes remaining — with 189. DeRozan was second (182), followed by Damian Lillard (139).
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the third finalist alongside Curry and DeRozan, ranked eighth in clutch scoring with 112 total points.
“You’ve got to be able to fail,” Curry said on TNT. “You know that Jordan quote — you miss (100%) of the shots you don’t take — you have to be okay with the shot that you miss and have a short memory with it. I don’t know if anything clicked other than just knowing how much time you put into the game, and with that time comes deserved confidence of, ‘Okay, I’m ready for whatever moment.’”
When the Warriors needed him most, Curry elevated his game. In clutch situations, Curry shot 49.6% from the field and 45.7% from behind the arc — both well above his season averages.
Curry added two game-winning shots to his resume, as he buried the Suns on Feb. 10 with a 33-footer and beat the Thunder in the In-Season Tournament with a layup at the horn.
More clutch moments from Curry got erased by disappointing sequences from his team. He put the Warriors ahead of the Lakers with his ninth 3-pointer of the game with 4.7 seconds left, only for LeBron James to hit the game-winning free throws on the other end as time expired. He also hit a go-ahead layup against the Hawks — in his season-high 60-point performance — but Dejounte Murray sent the game into overtime, which Atlanta won.
“Everybody remembers the highlights,” Curry said on TNT. “But there’s plenty of shots that you miss, that you walk off the court like, ‘That was a good one I should’ve taken, wish I would’ve made.’ But you move on to the next. You’ve got to have a little amnesia built in there, that’s the only way you can keep coming back to those moments with the same kind of confidence.”
The Warriors played 48 clutch games, most in the NBA. They went 24-24 in such contests, emblematic of the feeling many in the organization share: the Warriors should have been a playoff team.
Curry’s Hall of Fame resume includes four NBA championships, two MVPs, a Finals MVP, nine All-NBA selections and the all-time 3-point belt. And now, the 2023-24 Clutch Player of the Year recognition.
