Stephen Curry is usually the one putting up big numbers against his opponents. However, he once had to digest a double nickel from a very unlikely source, which made the performance pretty memorable for the Golden State Warrior. Reminiscing his old days on the Knuckleheads podcast in 2022, Curry went on to give Brandon Jennings his flowers for dropping 55 points on the Dubs in his rookie season.
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Entering the league as the 7th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft, Curry received his ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment seven games into the season from a rookie drafted after him. Curry was humbled by Milwaukee Bucks’ Brandon Jennings during the latter’s first-ever visit to the East Coast as a Buck.
The Knuckleheads podcast starts with a segment called ‘Bust Your A**.’ The guest of the episode usually shares the name of the first player who busted their a** in the league. This led Curry to narrate his Brandon Jennings story on the podcast two years ago.
The Dubs superstar didn’t even hesitate to mention that Jennings had actually dropped him during the game. The four-time NBA Champion gave BJ his flowers for his strong showing that day against the Dubs. Jennings also became the youngest person to score 55 in the NBA after the performance.
“Brandon Jennings, he had a double nickel against us…He had 55 early in the game. He dropped me early in the game. Second quarter, we were trying to blitz him and he like, came off of the screen on the left side. There’s film of it too. Hit me with a quick little left-right cross, down to the middle and I just sat down,” Curry revealed.
As two rookie guards took each other on, Jennings had Steph on skates under a minute of the second quarter’s start. As Curry mentioned, Jennings instantly stopped on a dime, causing Curry to trip and ‘sit down’ on the floor.
The Milwaukee Bucks rookie went from left to right and then drove into the middle, as Curry narrated. However, Jennings was immediately fouled by Curry, who was visibly eager to make up for his shortcomings on defense, aggressively attempting to catch up with BJ.
The time when Brandon Jennings cooked Stephen Curry
It was the seventh official NBA game of his career when Brandon Jennings dropped 55 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, shooting 21-34 from the field and 7-8 from beyond the arc.
Jennings recently talked about his 55-point game while making an appearance on the Club 520 Podcast. He mentioned going 0-5 from the field in the very first quarter, leaving former Bucks coach Scott Skiles to pull him out of the game.
“So, I didn’t score in the first quarter at all. I went 0-5 and Skiles pulled me out like, ‘You ain’t ready to play.’… But that 55 game, I just remember going to Denny’s the next morning. The Under Armour budget wasn’t like that back then…I went to Denny’s the next day and then I was reading the newspaper with myself in it.”
Jennings’ 55-point performance has been a record for a rookie for the past 15 years now.
