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30th December 2015
08:57am GMT
He is putting up insane numbers, averaging 32.3 points per game, to go with six assists and five rebounds, while shooting more than 50 per cent from the field and 45 per cent from three-point range, fabulous ratios before you even consider the volume of shots he's putting up - he's on pace to attempt more than 900 three-point shots this season, more than 200 more than anyone in NBA history.
As well as leading this year's race, you could even argue that last year's MVP should win the league's Most Improved Player award as well.
Team-mates have even given up rebounding for him.
https://twitter.com/wyclefmarley/status/673533349537980416
The three-pointer has become increasingly prevalent in the NBA - to the point of infuriating some traditionalists - but there are few more thrilling sights than seeing its the lethal Curry heat up from distance.
He has become the first to truly master the art of shooting off the dribble, and there is seemingly no limit to his range. While most players spot up just outside the arc and wait for an open shot, Curry is happy to pull up from several feet further back, to devastating effect.
https://twitter.com/IanKenyonNFL/status/675385889325879296
https://twitter.com/skepticalsports/status/675088753506033664
His PER, or Player Efficiency Rating, stands at 32.14 for the season, which would eclipse the all-time mark of 31.82, held by Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain (only one other point guard cracks the top 20), but it's only when you get past the numbers that you get to heart of why Curry has become America's sporting darling over the past 12 months.
For a start, just look at him. He's listed as 6ft 3in tall (although is probably closer to 6ft 1in) and weighs less than 14st, and despite being 27 could fit right in at any first-year college class.
Compare him to previous players who were the face of the NBA and the contrast is immediately clear.
Michael Jordan and LeBron James are fierce and intense competitors, physical freaks and forces of nature on the court, while Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal were seven-foot behemoths, so strong they physically dominated the competition.
Kobe Bryant was a volume scorer who did much of his damage from long range but the efficiency with which Curry plays puts the Lakers great in the shade.
Magic Johnson played the game with the same verve as Curry, but stood 6ft 9in - enormous for a point guard - and attempted just over 1,000 three-pointers in his entire career.
None of the others, perhaps Shaq aside, seemed to enjoy the game as much as Curry, who laughs, smiles and dances his way through games at the same time as he plunges the dagger into another opponent, and then is happy to sit and take questions while his enviably cute toddler daughter captures the hearts of a nation.
Curry is a transcendant talent - just look at the crowds who show up hours before games to catch a glimpse of his famous warm-up routine - but more than that he is accessible.
He isn't a physical freak, nor is he a troubled genius, he is the boy next door who is delighted to compare himself to Lionel Messi. He is the fresh-faced assassin who is the hero of every sports-mad child in America and who cheerleads for his team-mates as much as his own fans shout for him.
He isn't the tallest or the strongest, nor can he jump the highest, but in less than 18 months he has become a unique figure in NBA history is by some distance the sportsperson of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rR5OV2SWeA
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