Steph Curry reflects on being 'underrated' while launching tour for overlooked HS players
It’s odd to think back to a time when Stephen Curry wasn’t on top of the basketball world, when he wasn’t collecting championships and honors for the Golden State Warriors, when his family wasn’t at the center of celebrity.
Yet there was a time like that and lest we forget, Curry took us on a blast to the past with his piece for The Player’s Tribune on Wednesday titled “Underrated.”
In it Curry details the most important talk of his life, which came from his mom at the age of 13; a story of Virginia Tech giving him a courtesy walk-on spot; and the launch of his new “Underrated Tour,” which is the entire point of the piece.
Moms give the best life talks
A 13-year-old Curry didn’t fare well at the AAU national championships in 2001, but it was that performance that sparked what he called the most important talk of his entire life. It came courtesy of his mom, Sonya, when she and husband Dell sat Steph down at the Holiday Inn in Tennessee.
Curry paraphrased what he remembers his mom saying:
Steph, I’m only going to tell you this one time. After that, this basketball dream … it’s going to be what it’s going to be. But here’s what I’ll say: NO ONE gets to write your story but you. Not some scouts. Not some tournament. Not these other kids, who might do this better or that better. And not EVER your last name. None of those people, and none of those things, gets to be the author of your story. Just you. So think real hard about it. Take your time. And then you go and write what you want to write. But just know that this story — it’s yours.
Living under the radar
Curry broke up his tale by quotes and tweets from the late 2000s showing disgust or “meh” replies to his entering the draft. They continue into the early 2010s with comments such as “Steph Curry will never win a title” and “Steph Curry isn’t a remarkable athlete.”
A look at the piece for those alone is worth it. The people who tweeted them out are already receiving “this tweet did not age well” replies.
Virginia Tech gives courtesy offer
Curry’s father, Dell, played for Virginia Tech prior to his 16-year NBA career so when an assistant coach for the Hokies requested to meet Curry at school the high school junior thought he was getting an offer.
During an awkward lunch meeting in the school cafeteria, the coach instead invited Curry to walk on.
“Turns out, Virginia Tech was only meeting with me as — well, I wouldn’t say a favor to my dad, like he would ever ask for that or anything. But it was more like: a courtesy? A walk-on spot for the legend’s son? I’d have to pay my own way.”
Or in other words: They were not interested.
Curry wrote his own story at Davidson, where players completed midterms papers in between March Madness tournament victories.
Kicking off the ‘Underrated Tour’
Curry looked back on his past as an underrated recruit, a critiqued NBA prospect and an eventual rise to success to announce his launch of ‘The Underrated Tour.”
The tour will be comprised of basketball camps around the country, but instead of inviting five-star recruits exclusively it will look at players who aren’t receiving such praise.
“What about the kids who, for one reason or another, because of one perceived shortcoming or another, are getting labeled as two or three-star recruits?”
Curry wrote that it’s the same group of top-tier players who go to all the camps, where they begin to make a name for themselves, but there’s no place for the other players to show what they can do. It creates, he wrote, “a situation where the limits of what they can accomplish are being put in place before they’ve gotten to test those limits for themselves.”
As Curry reminded us, it wasn’t that long ago that the three-time NBA champion and two-time NBA MVP was one of those kids.
“I already have one camp … and it’s awesome. But guess who wouldn’t have been invited to it?
Me.”
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