Stephen Curry, Patrick Mahomes will bring BFFs to battle in ‘The Match’
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If Stephen Curry or Patrick Mahomes loses in the latest installment of “The Match,” it won’t be because he lacked chemistry with his playing partner. Both superstars were paired this time with notable, longtime teammates from their real-life squads. Curry will play with Golden State Warriors “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson, and Mahomes will have on his side record-setting Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
The teams are set to square off June 29 in the made-for-TV event, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports announced Wednesday. The eighth “Match” will unfold over 12 holes at the Wynn Las Vegas course.
The NBA-vs.-NFL showdown will not lack championship pedigree. Golden State and Kansas City are the reigning champions of their leagues, and Curry, whose Warriors are embroiled in a second-round playoff matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers, could be coming off another title run by the time “The Match” is set to begin.
As it stands now, Curry and Thompson are bringing four NBA championships and six Finals appearances to the table, with the former also accounting for two NBA MVP awards and a Finals MVP nod. Mahomes has a pair of NFL MVP awards in his own right, and he has twice been honored as the victorious MVP of the Super Bowl, in which he and Kelce have helped the Chiefs appear three times.
In addition, Curry and Thompson have combined for 14 all-star selections to 13 Pro Bowls for their Kansas City counterparts — but, of course, none of that means any of them are any good at golf. Fortunately for TNT viewers, all are experienced golfers, and “The Match” fans already have seen Curry and Mahomes compete in the event.
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Unfortunately for the two household names, each lost in his previous appearance. In 2020, Curry and Peyton Manning somehow fell to a pairing that included Charles Barkley (it helped that Phil Mickelson comprised the other half of his duo), and Mahomes unsuccessfully teamed last year with Josh Allen against a decidedly older pair of quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. That was the first time “The Match” did not include any professional golfers, and now the event is going back to that formula after the most recent installment, in December, featured Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas.
Of the four contestants set to hit the links in June, Curry is probably the most accomplished and invested in the sport. He has twice played in Korn Ferry Tour events, shooting a round of 71 in 2018. The following year, he sponsored the creation of men’s and women’s golf teams at Howard University.
As a two-man team, though, Mahomes and Kelce can claim a relatively recent victory: They took the 2022 title at a celebrity event, the 8AM Golf Invitational. That tournament took place at Wynn Las Vegas, so the Chiefs also bring a fair amount of familiarity with the course to “The Match.”
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Source: The Washington Post
