There were quiet moments, as Stephen Curry calls them, when the greatest 3-point shooter in NBA history and four-time champion didn’t think he would achieve any of his lofty goals.
In 2012, Curry had missed most of his third professional season due to injury, eventually requiring surgery on his right ankle that April. Curry, in his new book “Shot Ready,” admits to being scared at the time, but also writes that “the gift of fear is that you realize what you’re grateful for.”
“Every doubt that comes in, you kind of have to try to overcome it with positive self talk,” the Golden State Warriors point guard told NBC News on Wednesday.
After that operation, the rehab required to get back on the court took a mental toll.
“Plenty of time sitting in my basement in Charlotte with the boot on my ankle after surgery, and being so far away from just being able to put your shoes on and go hoop,” Curry said of that time in his life. “Plenty of conversations with my wife about days that we didn't want to go through a painful rehab session just thinking about how long it was going to take to feel like yourself.”
As Curry writes in his book, it was his ambition to play the game he loved more than his desire to be the best player in the world that provided him the resolve to get back on the floor. Since then, his otherworldly shooting, his joy and success on the court have made him an NBA icon.
Over the last decade, Curry has become one of the defining players in the history of basketball. He’s the NBA’s all-time leading 3-point shooter, a two-time MVP and a player imitated all over the world.
In that time, he’s also developed a unique relationship with the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, the other titan in this NBA era.
The two met in high school, and then James signed a jersey for Curry when he was a star in college at Davidson. Before Curry’s first NBA game against James, he went to his house in Ohio, where he took note of his bowling alley and his 5-year-old son, Bronny.
(“I think he still has this little jumbotron-looking big screen he likes to watch his games on,” Curry said about any other amenities that caught his eye that day.)
Then, from 2015 to 2019, Curry and James played each other in the NBA Finals every year. In 2024, they finally joined forces on Team USA to bring home a gold at the Paris Olympics. It’s a story — from idol to rivals to friends — even Curry has a hard time wrapping his head around.
Curry said that when James was a senior in high school and he was a freshman, he went to see him play in Greensboro, North Carolina. "Then I met him again after my [NCAA] tournament run in Charlotte and I got his jersey. Fast forward to playing on the same Olympic team, I’m sure on both our parts it’s a very surreal experience.”
Curry added: “I know we still have more battles in front of us. When it’s all said and done, I'm sure we'll be able to reflect on the entire experience, because it doesn't make sense. If you freeze frame when I first met him in Charlotte in 2008, whoever would have thought of this on either of our sides.”
Another flashpoint moment Curry describes in his book is his game-winning 3-pointer against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016. Playing against Russell Westbrook and his future teammate Kevin Durant, and in the midst of the Warriors’ 73-win season, Curry pulled up from near the center-court logo for a winner in overtime.
“I’ve tried every shot,” Curry said when asked about what gave him the confidence in that moment. “I took it because I thought I could make it. And reason I thought I could make is because I put plenty of time in to understand what those mechanics should look like and feel like.”
Curry added, though, that missing would not have deterred him.
“You have to be OK with failure,” he said. “Putting yourself out there, nothing is results driven. It's all process oriented. And so had I missed that shot, however the game would have ended up, if I had that same shot the next night, I probably would take it again.”
While Curry is more than happy to look back on the hallmarks of his career, he’s in no way ready to ride off into the sunset.
Golden State made it to the second round of the playoffs last season, and the 37-year-old Curry missed most of the series due to injury. He is as hungry as ever to win. If anything, Curry’s advanced age has only made him more appreciative of the games he has left.
“The regular season grind is real the deeper you get into the career,” Curry said. “'I’m OK acknowledging that the end is closer than the beginning, just because it grounds me, and enjoying every moment that I have out there. But I'm not fast forwarding to this has to go this way, this way, this way, for me to play a certain amount of years.
“I'm acknowledging it more, but that's the only way I'm really thinking about it.”
