Stephen Curry, a four-time NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, has shared that he failed an eye test as a kid trying to play the sport before becoming one of the greats.
Stephen Curry is a familiar name to those who love the orange ball. He plays the point guard position and is known as one of the best point guards of all time. Many experts and players have considered Curry to be the greatest shooter in NBA history. Curry is also credited with revolutionizing the game of basketball by inspiring the use of three-point shots.
The 36-year-old has thrived as one of professional basketball’s most popular figures over the past decade, holding the highest career free throw percentage in NBA history (91.0%) and the NBA record for three-pointers made in a single regular season with 402 in 2016, beating his own previous record of 286.
Curry is one of the best point guards of all time
The three-point shooter won NBA titles in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022, was named NBA MVP in 2015 and 2016 and is a 10-time NBA All-Star. “It’s cool to talk about my basketball roots. Basketball is in my blood. “My dad, Dell Curry, played in the NBA for 16 years, and so there was a little bit of internal conflict about having basketball be a part of the family business,” Curry said.
However, his journey to the top was not an easy one. Stephen Curry once shared: “When I started playing organized basketball at 9 years old, I was underweight and didn’t really pass the eye test. I always had this underdog mentality from the beginning. There were a lot of people telling me I couldn’t do it or I couldn’t do it. I kind of had to accept all of that, and pretty much at every level from 9-year-old basketball to middle school, to high school basketball, there were a lot of barriers to who I thought I was as a basketball player, and not knowing what people thought of me.
The Three-Point Machine’s Familiar Celebration
I carried that underdog mentality with me all the way through, not receiving many college acceptance letters or scholarship offers from many of the big schools that were big in college basketball, until I finally received an official offer from Davidson College, a small liberal arts school in North Carolina with about 1900 students at the time, and all I needed was a little opportunity and a coach who believed in me.
The rest is history from there as I followed my purpose as a basketball player, developing a great work ethic that I still rely on to this day. Now I’ve played 15 years in the NBA and I’m going to try to stay that way as long as I can, but that underrated mindset still exists and lives with me to this day.”
The son of former NBA player Dell Curry and the brother of current NBA player Seth Curry, Stephen Curry played college basketball for the Davidson Wildcats. He set the all-time scoring record for both Davidson and the Southern League, and was twice named the league’s Player of the Year. In his sophomore year, Curry also set the NCAA record for most three-pointers made in a season, and was subsequently selected by the Warriors with the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.
The chef has always been a leader in his team
When asked where the motivation came from to continue pursuing his dream career, Curry said it was something he felt was always there. “I had it but it was validated by people who saw how I carried myself. Sometimes you could call it a little bit delusional. You could see me as a skinny kid trying to guard the best player on the floor, trying to compete with guys taller than me because I felt like I belonged.
“But the people around me validated that: keep doing what you’re doing, keep believing in yourself and always have that mindset of taking advantage of every opportunity to play basketball. I’ve carried that with me. The hard thing now is when you get a little bit of success, you tend to lose that spirit and that mindset, and I have to remind myself of where I came from and how far I’ve come,” Chef Curry shared his motivation to maintain his passion Looking back at the current generation of young basketball players, Curry said: “I see the next generation of young players being able to influence and inspire, and help create opportunities in some of the things I’m doing off the court. I feel like there’s something approachable about the way I play the game. Even when you see me playing against guys in the NBA right now, I still look like the smallest guy out there, but I try to play taller than I am. People have been drawn to the way I play and hopefully it’s been inspiring.”
