How Steph Curry's grandpa built hoop to keep bears from eating Dell

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Warriors superstar Steph Curry was a guest on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Thursday night.

If you missed it, the three-time NBA champion confirmed a story that you probably haven't heard before.

Enjoy.

Kimmel: "I was reading a story about your family. Your grandfather built a basketball court for your dad so that he wouldn't be eaten by bears -- is that true?"

Curry: "(Laughter) That is true. It sparked an entire 16-year NBA career. He put a basketball hoop up on a light pole in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia where my dad grew up. My dad had four older sisters, so whenever my grandparents went to work, my aunts would all lock my dad out the house.

"So he had no choice but to just get shots up on this makeshift basket -- which turned him into one of the greatest sharpshooters of all time. So if that's what it took -- and it kept the bears away -- definitely a pretty cool set-up they had."

Kimmel: "And he never was mauled or eaten by a bear."

Curry: "He made it through, and he got his reps up. I don't think the jumper would have saved him from any attack like that. Thankfully, it didn't happen."

Have you stopped laughing yet?

[RUNNIN' PLAYS PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode]

Where did Kimmel read this?

Here's what David Fleming wrote in an April 2015 feature in ESPN the Magazine:

There were too many bears roaming the woods behind the house and, with four daughters, far too many Barbies inside. Just before the school year ended in the early 1970s in Grottoes, Virginia, Wardell "Jack" Curry needed a solution, and fast. All he wanted was a way to keep his only son, Dell, occupied by something other than deadly animals or dolls during the long summer days ahead.

As it turned out, though, with nothing more than an old utility pole, a fiberglass backboard and some fabricated steel brackets, Jack Curry ended up changing the sport of basketball and producing the ultimate point guard, his grandson Stephen Curry.

[RELATED: Steph discusses 'insanity' of trash talk in fanless games]

Somehow, yours truly missed this at the time.

So thank you, Mr. Kimmel, for bringing it to light.

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