Over the past two seasons, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers have had some heated battles in the NBA Finals and during the regular season. A rubber match in the Finals could perhaps even happen this season after the Cavs and Warriors each won a title against each other. 

But despite all off these factors, LeBron James said he doesn’t think that Golden State, or any team for that matter, is the Cavs’ rival, because they don’t have one. Even more specifically, James apparently doesn’t think Stephen Curry is his rival. James did however, provide more reasonable context to why he doesn’t see Curry that way. 

Talking to reporters after All-Star practice Saturday, James said he hasn’t played against Curry enough times for it to be a true rivalry.

“I don’t have a rivalry with Steph Curry,” James said. “There’s no way you can say, ‘Let’s talk about rivalries,’ and you say, ‘[Larry] Bird and Magic [Johnson]. Carolina, Duke. Ohio State, Michigan,’ and then say ‘LeBron and Steph.’

“It’s disrespectful to those other three that I just named that you would even try to put us in the class with that. We haven’t had enough battles, and who’s to say we will have future battles. We’ll see, but to put us in a category with [them], it’s impossible. You can’t do it.”

James makes some good points here, especially since the Cavs and Warriors have just played each other twice in the Finals. Also, Curry and James play different positions and in only rare instances are matched up against each other. 

But if the Warriors and Cavs continue to meet each other in the Finals for the next few seasons, then James and Curry will likely become true rivals. And in turn, so will the Warriors and Cavs, which they likely already are.