Part of why Steph Curry has been one of the most popular NBA players of the past 16 or so years is that he’s found his unique way to thrive without being the tallest or the most athletic person on the court. Steph represents all of us sitting at home on our couch who believe that if given the chance, we could make it rain 3-pointers, too.
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Despite leading the Golden State Warriors to four NBA titles, Steph has always felt like the underdog. It goes back to his high school and college days, when he didn’t receive an offer from a big school despite being the son of Dell Curry. Steph went on to light it up at Davidson, then take the NBA by storm.
Curry has always been fueled by a childlike energy, as seen in his non-stop motor while running around screens and his playful celebrations after a huge shot. Curry’s former teammate, Damion Lee, appeared on the Straight to Cam podcast (cohosted by his wife and Steph’s sister, Sydel Curry-Lee) and revealed that Steph is like a kid on the playground. He is fueled by insults and inspired by dares.
“I was next to him in the locker room,” Lee said. “He would type in his name on Twitter at halftime, and it would be like, ‘Oh Stephen Curry this, whatever,’ and he’d look at it for probably like a minute or two and scroll, close his phone, put it down, and then go crazy in the second half,” recalled Lee.
One can almost picture Steph being taunted by a bully and then drilling an ice-cold jumper right in his grill. Some athletes say they don’t read what people say about them, but Steph isn’t one of them. He’s also not above letting people know that he’s tuned into the online discourse, as Lee revealed.
“One time, Kerith Burke, one of the reporters for the Warriors, tweeted right before halftime, ‘Steph, if you see this, I want you to do airplane arms after you make a 3.’ He made one 3, boom, and then he made another 3 late third, early fourth, and ran down doing airplane arms,” added Lee.
Steph is also like the brother that Cameron Brink never had. Brink’s parents are Steph’s godparents and vice versa, and so she knows him as well as just about anybody. The recently returned L.A. Sparks star summed it up perfectly by saying, “He’s just a big kid.”
That’s true, and it’s even more obvious given that the trailer recently dropped for Goat, Steph’s new animated kids movie. Goat looks like an anthropomorphic retelling of Steph’s origin story, as it follows “a small goat with big dreams” who wants to “prove once and for all that ‘smalls can ball.'”
The movie has a bunch of big names attached to it, including Gabrielle Union, Patton Oswalt, Nick Kroll, and Jennifer Hudson. It’s scheduled to release in theaters next February, the day before the 3-Point Contest and two days before the All-Star Game.
