Stephen Curry

I went to high school in Davidson, NC, and our basketball coach had some connections in the athletic department at Davidson College. Before our conference tournament my Senior year, he took us on a "field trip" to watch a Davidson basketball practice and maybe shoot with them a little bit. We walked into the practice gym and watched the Wildcats go through all of their drills and game planning for their next game against whatever over matched SoCon team they were about to play. As they split off into shooting groups, I followed the skinny kid in the #30 jersey who looked like he was about 15 years old and 150 pounds soaking wet.

I am talking, of course, about Stephen Curry.

He had just become a national superstar the previous year by almost single handedly dragging Davidson to the Final Four, and was becoming one of the best shooters anybody had ever seen. So it was a treat when I watched him and a team manager go off to a side court and work on his shooting. He took probably 100 jump shots in 5 minutes, from close range all the way out to 40 feet. And until he got waaaay past the three point line, he never missed two shots in a row. Almost every attempt barely moved the net as it went through the basket, and I was in awe seeing someone shoot a basketball like that. It almost looked effortless as he shot the ball off cuts, off the dribble, spotting up, putting the ball in the basket like some sort of robot.

Sunday night, Stephen Curry had a game for the ages in the NBA playoffs. He scored 22 points in the third quarter, and pretty much buried the Memphis Grizzlies by himself. Every time I watch him shoot, I think back to watching him in that little side court at Davidson College, making the act of shooting a basketball look impossibly easy.

After they were done practicing, my high school team had a short little scrimmage out on the floor, and being the three point shooter on the team, I tried to make at least a couple of shots in front of a guy who literally missed maybe 10 times out of a hundred in his shoot around. I made a shot or two, and was very happy with the fact that we even got to play on a college basketball floor in front of players who were much better than I could ever hope to be.

After we got dont scrimmaging, all of the Davidson players said hello and talked with us for a few minutes, and I was struck by how down to earth Curry was. He knew how good he was going to be, probably more than all of the NBA scouts who watched him play and saw the same thing that the ACC coaches saw in him when he played in high school. Looking back and seeing him like a basketball metronome, swishing shot after shot from ridiculous distances, I probably should have seen the talent that all of America saw on Sunday night.

I see him on tv scorching NBA players and think back to that humble kid who had a supernatural ability to throw a ball through a basket on a side gym during a rainy day in Davidson, NC. He probably doesn't remember that day, but I guarantee that all of us who were there remember it like it was yesterday.

It makes me really happy when good people find success in whatever they do. Stephen Curry is one of those good people, and that is why I root for him whenever I watch him play.