Guarding Warriors superstar Steph Curry is difficult on multiple levels
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) shoots the basketball against Denver Nuggets guard Facundo Campazzo (7) during the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Guarding Steph Curry is one of the most difficult tasks in the NBA. While it’s already brutal to chase him around the court, there’s actually another element to it that most don’t know about – the heckling.
During an interview on the “Clank!” podcast, former Denver Nuggets guard Facundo Campazzo revealed an untold story of getting heckled by famous rappers while facing Curry.
“I had to defend Stephen Curry and Trae Young,” Campazzo said. “When they had been scoring a couple of points in a row on me, there were these rappers sitting in the front row. They were saying to me, ‘Attack him, he can’t defend you! Look, look, he doesn’t know how to defend!'”
The heckling started putting doubt in Campazzo’s defense because he didn’t want to end up on a highlight play. It’s a mindset that many players likely have when guarding Curry, but don’t want to publicly admit it.
“And you hear them because they are there in the front row. I was thinking, ‘Please don’t attack me!’ Or I would hope that I don’t fall so I don’t end up in the top 10 of the week,” Campazzo said.
It wasn’t just high-profile rappers that were heckling Campazzo though, Draymond Green also joined in on the fun – which should be very expected.
Después de bastante tiempo hoy tenemos otro Curry vs Campazzo y solo puedo acordarme de una cosa:”HE CAN’T GUARD ME.”El Steph de principios de 2021 estaba completamente endemoniado.pic.twitter.com/MyCqvc6Gcc
— GSWL (@WarriorsLatam_) December 28, 2021
“It was the same when I was defending Curry. Draymond Green would come up to me and say, ‘No matter how you defend him, he’s going to score 30 points on you, so ask your coach for a change so that you could defend someone else’,” Campazzo said.
Guarding Steph Curry is one of the most unenviable tasks in the NBA. Players are always on the verge of becoming a highlight play, and no one knows that better than Facundo Campazzo.