Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers joke around with one another during their game at Chase Center on Jan. 27, 2024, in San Francisco.

Any conversation about basketball has to include Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry at some point, which is something that LeBron James showcased with his new podcast, “Mind the Game,” which came out Tuesday.

Thirty minutes into the debut episode of the new show starring James and former NBA player JJ Redick, the two discussed how fast leads evaporate in the league in today’s game. Redick shared that early in his career, teams would substitute players from the end of the bench into games with leads of less than 20 points early in the fourth quarter. It’s a phenomenon that doesn’t happen anymore thanks to one man, according to James: “that lightskinned f—ker … that’s in Golden State,” aka Curry.

“He changed that whole narrative,” James said with a laugh. “He did. He single-handedly changed the ‘no lead is safe.’ It’s like Pat Mahomes right now.”

The praise continued immediately, as Redick suggested no player had influenced basketball more than Curry has throughout his career. James, who interjected, “Love that guy”, about Curry during Redick’s take, agreed with that sentiment wholeheartedly. The Lakers star added that Hall of Famer Allen Iverson should also be in the conversation, but ultimately those two men had more impact on the game than anyone before them.

“They were guys that was not always counted on, they were small in stature and they just defied odds,” James said.

“And now you have Steph who’s shooting over the Empire State Building,” he added. “It’s just like those two are the two most influential — when you say the game, how they changed the game and the kids and like — those are two guys that you just want to watch every single night.”

On its surface, these comments are par for the course from the Lakers forward. Curry and James have always had high praise for one another, even when they were regular championship opponents during the respective peaks of their careers. Some fans might remember that there were those rumors that Golden State was trying to trade for James ahead of the deadline in February, but that’s reading one elite player’s compliments about another elite player too deeply.

As Redick told The Athletic on Monday, the podcast is “just about basketball.” Given how influential both players believe Curry is to the game, it only makes sense that the Warriors star had to come up at some point.