The Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry had a story to tell about the LA Lakers star LeBron James

Oct 18, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) meets with Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) after the game at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

Oct 18, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) meets with Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) after the game at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images

There is no question who the two faces of the NBA still are in 2025: Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Lakers forward LeBron James.

No matter how good players become in 2025, fans come out in the thousands to see Curry and James play, even at the end of their illustrious careers.

Going back to their hard-fought battles in the NBA Finals for four years in a row from 2015 to 2018, Curry and James have been at the forefront of NBA stardom.

What were the battles between James and Curry like?

The term “you had to be there” would be fitting for a topic such as this, but with James and Curry still going head-to-head in 2025, while earning All-NBA nods and All-Star selections in their late 30s and early 40s, the competition is still alive.

The Warriors won three out of the four meetings between James and Curry from 2015 to 2018 in the NBA Finals, but the 2016 NBA Finals were one of the greatest in NBA history.

James completed a 3-1 comeback to earn the Cavaliers their first title in franchise history. Since James has moved on to the Lakers, he and Curry matched up for the first time since 2018 in the playoffs in 2023, with the Lakers defeating Golden State in six games to advance to the Conference Finals.

What is their relationship?

Curry recently appeared on Complex’s show “360 With Speedy” to discuss his extended relationship with LeBron going back to his college days at Davidson.

When asked about a jersey that James gifted to Curry, he explained, “It’s in my my pops house in Charlotte, but we were playing in the…Sweet 16 against Wisconsin in 2008 and um he came to Ford Field in Detroit and watched that game and I went off and they obviously would cut to him every time I hit a bucket, and he was doing you know the animated you know celebrations and all that.”

“I came back to the game that night, and after the game, he came out the locker room with a jersey and it’s like the king of basketball North Carolina. It’s hard. Signed it and uh I had it on my wall all of my the rest of you know college uh didn’t take it with me to The Bay but my pops got it,” Curry continued.

Curry also mentions that during his rookie year, James invited him over to his house and showed him around. “Just, rookie year like that was the next year after, and called him up like ‘yo I’m in Cleveland’ like he’s like ‘come to the crib in Akron’ and I was born in Akron so I was like I’m going to Akron like I’m hanging out with Bron.”

Despite being fierce competitors, the two NBA legends get to share Akron as a birthplace and can bond over that.

He continued, “He is mad fun goofy like he just a wants to have fun and it was like that at the crib…he has like the big old video wall of 16 different screens we watching all type of stuff he’s like ‘oh there’s a bowling alley over here’ and I’m like what are you talking about never seen that before and so we go bowling.” While LeBron is picking up golf, it seems as though he’s already got bowling nailed down.

James and Curry also won the Gold Medal in the 2024 Olympics for Team USA, with two of the most exciting finishes in Olympic basketball history.