More Than He Looked: Steph Curry

The Queensway Christian College boys’ basketball team hadn’t lost a game. They were so good that coach James Lackey had begun arranging games with big high schools in the area. The Queensway team beat them all.

But one day they played against a team from Toronto. The Queensway team was down by seven points with one minute left. Coach James called a timeout.

“Hey, let's be good sports whether we win or lose and shake hands and keep your heads up,” said Coach James.

He was going to keep speaking and telling them to learn from this experience. Except one boy interrupted him.

“We are not going to lose this game. Give me the ball and we will win,” the boy said.

That boy was Steph Curry. At 5 feet 2 inches, he didn’t look like much. He was skinny and almost a full head shorter than many of the other boys on his team.

But Coach James agreed. Their play would be to get Steph the ball.

Steph began sinking shots. It seemed like he would shoot from anywhere on the court, and he didn’t miss. When the buzzer rang, the Queensway team had won by seven points.

It was just the start for the small boy who would grow up to be a basketball legend.

Basketball beginnings

Steph Curry was born Wardell Stephen Curry II. He had basketball in his blood. His dad, Dell Curry, played for the NBA.

Steph grew up going to his father’s games. He and his brother, Seth, often played on the team’s practice court while his father’s team played on the main court. Steph and his brother liked to run across to the main court to see a few plays, then they rushed back to the practice court to imitate what they saw. All that time watching and practicing paid off. It was obvious to anyone who saw Steph handle a basketball that he had skills.

It was a good thing Steph had talent, because he didn’t look like a regular basketball player. He was short and skinny. Most people couldn’t believe that he was a star player when they first saw him.

But Steph learned to play to his strengths. He was fast, and he practiced and practiced until he became one of the fastest shooters.

“I want to practice to the point where it’s almost uncomfortable how fast you shoot, so that in the game things kind of slow down,” Steph said.

However, even after playing well in high school, many teams didn’t want him to play for them in college. Steph had wanted to play for Virginia Tech, like his dad did. But all Virginia Tech offered him was a chance to play as a walk-on. That meant that he wouldn’t receive an athletic scholarship.

Steph decided to play for Davidson College. Their basketball team wasn’t as famous, but the coach at Davidson saw a spark in Steph.

“Wait until you see Stephen Curry,” the Davidson coach told everyone else.

He knew that Steph was going to be a star.

Keeping playing

Steph averaged 21.5 points per game in 2006-2007, his first year at Davidson. That was more than any other first-year player in the country! In his second year, he and his team made the quarterfinals of the NCAA March Madness basketball championship tournament. The next year, he was the top scorer in the entire country.

Steph was selected by the Golden State Warriors in the 2009 NBA draft. Five years later, he was voted the Most Valuable Player out of all the players on all the teams in the NBA. That same year, Steph helped his team win their first NBA championship in 40 years.

Since then, Steph has won the MVP award one more time, helped his team win the championships three more times, and been selected to the NBA All-Star team nine times. Steph is recognized as the best shooter in the history of the game. No one has scored as many three-point shots as him. Basketball today is played with more of a focus on three-point shots because of Steph.

The short, skinny boy practiced and practiced, and he used his speed and shooting skills to become one of the greatest players of all time.