There are few players in the NBA as well-liked and revered as Steph Curry, but even Steph isn’t immune from the occasional beef. Memphis Grizzlies second-year forward GG Jackson appeared this week on Podcast P with Paul George, and he shared a story about how he settled a longstanding grudge against the Warriors sharpshooter with a little help from the man upstairs.
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Jackson was by most accounts the number one recruit in the nation coming out of high school, but he reclassified to get to college a year early. That helped him get to the NBA that much quicker, but it also cost him a few things, namely the ability to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game and the chance to attend Steph Curry’s basketball camp, which he was uninvited from after announcing his reclassification.
Jackson had to wait nearly two years to get his revenge on Steph, and he said that when he finally did, God helped him get revenge.
“I still say to this day, that wasn’t me during that game. That was definitely the man up above. Because some of those shots, I was off-balance, I wasn’t doing my right shooting mechanics.”
Jackson scored 23 points on 6-9 shooting in 29 minutes in that first game against the Warriors, a 116-107 Grizzlies win. Later that season he was even more immaculate, dropping 35 points in 35 minutes in his first road game at the Chase Center, though the Warriors won that one 137-116.
If there’s one player in the NBA who could probably play God to a stalemate when it comes to a shooting contest, it has to be Steph, though it is funny to picture him in a Devil Went Down to Georgia kind of battle with the man upstairs.
GG Jackson got his revenge on Steph Curry, but it was all in good fun
Jackson said he caught up with Steph during that road game to make sure the legend knew how he felt.
“I talked to him at halftime, because I don’t know if I’ll talk to him after the game or whatnot, he might put the towel over his head and walk straight out the arena. I was like, ‘Yo Steph! Why you do me like that, man?’ He was like, ‘What? What you talking about?’ He tried to play it like, ‘Aw, my fault man, I didn’t even know.’ I told him it was all love, but definitely something I had in mind, even when I had to guard him.”
The former South Carolina Gamecock recently returned from a broken foot that sidelined him for the first few months of the season, and he’s now on a much different team than the one that finished 27-55 last year. Memphis is 31-16 and in third place in the West, but could still really use his contributions after the promise he showed in his rookie campaign.
Jackson missed the Grizzlies’ first three games against the Warriors this season, but he’ll have one more chance to take on Steph on April 1st. We’ll see if God will still be there to help him out.
