In the Manila Leg of the Under Armour Roadshow, Stephen Curry shared his path to greatness as an undersized player, to an underdog point guard in the league and now tasting the penultimate success of being an NBA champion together with his highest individual award, being the Most Valuable Player.
He told the media that his personal short term goal is simple, and that is to retain the title in the 2015-2016 season. Easier said than done, the 6’3” marksman knows that the other 29 teams will try their best to beat and at least give a good battle against his Golden State Warriors.
“It’s going to be a fun battle all year long. A lot of teams are retooling to get better and try to knock us off and we gonna be ready. We feel like we’re still the team to beat and we won’t lose that confidence.”
Regarding about confidence, Curry knows that not all nights would be one of those games wherein he’ll just shoot lights out from any part of the court. As he gave emphasis on improving, he states that no time would be wasted if one could give their all in terms of preparation.
“My confidence is built on preparation. So the time I spend on practicing and perfecting my game, I know I can rely on that no matter what the situation is. Like in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, I shot 5/22 and everybody thought I fell over the face of the earth. I never lost confidence because of how much time I put into it and eventually I found my way back into it.” Curry says.
He played 80 games in the regular season for the Warriors and averaged about 28.3ppg, 6th in the league, while also leading the league in 4.7 triples a match on an efficient 42.2% shooting clip beyond the arc. He believes that the point guard position in the NBA is the toughest right now and he takes no point guard for granted.
Steph says “As a whole, the point guard position is the strongest position in the NBA. There’s so many talented guys. I can’t take a night off cause I might get exposed since there’s so much talent. I know every night I have to be ready whether it’s Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, or Grevies Vasquez. They’re all in the NBA for a reason.”
Labeled to be an underdog was one thing Curry used as a stepping stone to vastly improve his play on a nightly-basis. It was one of the stories behind one of the Curry One colorways, together with his recognition to his dad, who always supported him in his decisions and in his games. Aside from former NBA veteran Dell Curry, Steph mentioned names that he used as an inspiration in his basketball career.
“My college coach(from Davidsons) Bob McKillop. He was the coach that inspired me to be the best that I can be on and off the court. From a players standpoint, I love to watch Reggie Miller and Steve Nash as those are my favorite players to watch. When I was playing the one or the two(point guard/shooting guard position), I watch them to play each and every game.”
In the long run, he stressed on trying to be cemented as one of the all time greats and retiring as one of the coveted Hall of Famers in the NBA in his statement “I wanna be a hall of famer and be somebody to be remembered for a long long time.”
To do that, he says that he believes in his personal mantra to get better and never listen to stuff that can affect his game. He is also known in his tagline of MMFF or ‘Make my teammates better’, which are embedded in his signature sneakers.
“It’s hard to argue about the year that we had. I never listened to the critics. It’s more all about self-determination and passion to get better and inspiration to get better”.
On October 27(Oct 28 Manila time), they open up their title-defense against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans at the Oracle Arena. They would also be having their ring ceremony in commemoration of their 2014-2015 title run before tipoff but Steph knows that it’s a brand new race to the championship and they will be ready for the challenge.
“I’m going to continue to lead my team. It’s going to be a different challenge for us because we never defended an NBA championship before so it’s going to be a new experience. I feel like we have the right guys and right chemistry to handle that attention and pressure.” he mentioned.
