The best shooter in the history of basketball and one of those rare phenomena who have revolutionized the game, Stephen Curry is not only known for his incredible 3-pointers, but also for the level of insolence that accompanies them. The legendary Warriors sniper has notably become a specialist over the years in award-winning blind shots, where he has the nerve to turn around before the ball even spins. Steph tells how it all started…
We’re in the first round of the 2013 Playoffs. For the first time since the We Believe era and for the first time in Steph Curry’s career, the Warriors enter the postseason after a 47-win campaign. Their first-round opponent? The Denver Nuggets, favorites of the series since they finished on the West podium at the end of the regular with 57 successes on the clock. Nevertheless, Golden State manages to win one of the first two games in Colorado, and thus has the opportunity to take control of the series in front of its Oracle Arena audience, truly on fire. The Warriors won Game 3, then led by twelve points at halftime in Game 4. It was then that Curry exploded by scoring 22 points in the third quarter, with the first award-winning shot in the lot. blind from his NBA career.
“There was an incredible atmosphere, and I was immersed in it. In the third quarter, we were on a crazy run, I was shooting everywhere. One of them was right in front of the Denver bench. JaVale McGee was standing, there were five or six guys next to him. I had the ball in the corner, and obviously when shooting they were trashtalking behind me. I dropped the ball, I had never felt my shot so well. So when it was time to shoot, I turned around and looked at JaVale, before I walked away and the shoot went in.
At that time, I hadn’t even checked to see if the shot had gone in. I waited for the noise of the public. It was truly a special moment. »
– Stephen Curry, via The Old Man and The Three
First appearance in the Playoffs for Steph, and the next he starts dropping 3-pointers blind. It was from there that we began to understand that the rest of the NBA was potentially in great danger against these Curry version Warriors. For the record, the Dubs ended up eliminating the Nuggets in six games, before falling that year to the Spurs in the conference semifinals. The following year, Golden State will lose in the first round against the Clippers, before starting their magnificent dynasty in 2015 with the arrival of Steve Kerr on the bench in place of Mark Jackson.
As for Stephen Curry, he will obviously reach incredible heights to become the best shooter in NBA history, and will make these blind 3-pointers one of his main trademarks. The proof with this little compilation shared just below, in which we find the famous action against the Nuggets that Steph (1m35) talks about.
Pure insolence.