Steph Curry reveals moment he knew ‘basketball was going to be my life'

Share

A couple of years ago, Steph Curry's college basketball coach -- Bob McKillop -- said the Warriors star could have been a Major League Baseball player.

I believe the two-time NBA MVP ended up making a pretty good decision by pursuing a professional basketball career.

Curry was born on March 14, 1988 -- near the end of Dell Curry's second NBA season. He grew up around the game and spent hours upon hours in NBA locker rooms and/or shooting around on NBA courts.

So, was there a specific moment in Curry's childhood when he realized he wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps?

"That moment for me, when I knew basketball was going to be my life. … I was 6 years old, playing in a rec league in North Carolina, where I grew up," Steph explained in a recent feature in The Players' Tribune. "And there was probably 15 people in the stands. There was a two-on-one fast break and I had the ball. And the defender came over to guard me, and instead of like making normal a chest pass or bounce pass, or a regular layup, I like jumped in the air, and then did like this 360 behind-my-back pass.

"It was right on target, and my teammate, he laid it up. And all 15 fans in the crowd went crazy. And, obviously, it was pretty beauty. But that was the moment that my creativity kind of came out and I knew there was going to be that type of reaction. So, I knew at that point that basketball was fun for me and I loved to do it, so … that was it."

The world deserves to see the video footage of that play. Unfortunately, cell phones with built-in cameras didn't really exist in 1994.

Sidenote: During the 1993-94 season, Dell Curry averaged 16.3 points per game for the Charlotte Hornets and shot just over 40 percent from deep.

Drew Shiller is the co-host of Warriors Outsiders. Follow him on Twitter @DrewShiller

Contact Us