I remember in the 90s hearing a small minority of people say Michael Jordan was hurting basketball because kids are going to just want to dunk. Then in 2000, I was hearing the same type of people criticize Allen Iverson's game and the And1 streetballers for making kids just want to break ankles.  Now we have individuals saying Steph Curry has "hurt" basketball because of his 3-point shot attempts.  This type of criticism isn't surprising, but hearing Curry's former coach and current ABC analyst Mark Jackson say the following during the Christmas day game between the Warriors and Cavs, did surprise some.

“I’ve thought about this one. Steph Curry’s great. Steph Curry’s the MVP. He’s a champion. Understand what I’m saying when I say this. To a degree, he’s hurt the game. And what I mean by that is, I go into high school gyms, I watch these kids, and the first thing they do is run to the 3-point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of the game. People think that he’s just a knock-down shooter. That’s not why he’s the MVP. He’s a complete basketball player.”

Unfortunately most people are just going to hear a sound byte - "he's hurt the game" - from the above statement or read the title of a post like this on a social media network and respond without fully understanding what Jackson was trying to say. Even Steph Curry seemed a little confused when he was told by Yahoo Sports of the comments.

"I have to talk to him," Curry replied with a chuckle. "I don't know what he means by that. If you can shoot, shoot. If you can't, stop."

Same goes for Curry's teammate Andrew Bogut but he also sounded like he doesn't really care what Jackson has to say.

"Anything he says, you can take that with a grain of salt," Bogut said. "And you can quote me on that."

MAYBE IT'S MY FAULT

Any time I hear anybody (i'm not referring to Mark Jackson) blame any NBA great for any "wrong" they have caused during the evolution of the NBA and/or how basketball is played at any level at any time, I just tell them to watch this Michael Jordan commercial from 2009.

Source: Yahoo Sports , Sporting News