It’s difficult to imagine how Steph works his magic but he always knew when he’s already in the zone
Ever since Golden State Warriors star point guard Steph Curry hit his stride on basketball’s biggest stage, his name has become synonymous with a lethal three-point shooter. Aside from draining shots from spots no player in his right mind would’ve even dared to take, “Chef Curry” also gained notoriety for being incredibly consistent.
Looking at how exceptionally confident Curry was in shooting the ball during games, it’s hard to determine at which point he realized that he was going to have a hot shooting night and what was the indication that it was likely to go in even when he pulled up from way behind the three-point line. According to Curry, he has to feel a combination of many things, and once he does, he knows it is on.
“Figure when you make two or three in a row, and then you have a ‘heat-check,’ if that goes in you got the hot hand,” Curry told Wbur’s Only A Game in 2014. “I’ve had it plenty of times and you know when it’s going right.”
“It’s a combination of you feeling good, making shots, but also you finding good shots. That’s a harder thing to do when teams know you’re feelin’ it,” he explained. “So, kind of a lot of variables go into it, but you definitely know when all you need is just a good look at the rim and it’s going in.”
Talent? Confidence? Practice? Or just Luck?
Needless to say, what Curry brought to the NBA was unique, and people wondered if it was because of sheer God-given talent. A product of hard work in the gym? The confidence brimming inside his body? Or just flat-out luck? As per Curry’s former Warriors teammate Matt Barnes, it definitely wasn’t luck.
Barnes once pointed out that it may appear as though Steph was just pulling up from wherever and whenever like he was in an All-Star game, but believe it or not, he practiced every otherworldly long-range shot he drilled during actual games.
“I can never say that Steph Curry made a lucky shot because you know he works on the odd angles, the awkward hand off the glass, the half-court shots that he shoots like their layups,” Barnes argued.
Every basketball fundamentals advocate would never tell a player to practice 30, 40, and 50-footers for apparent reasons. However, if a player averaged consistently above 40% from deep in his first 10 seasons in the NBA, they could make an exception. That’s basically what the CEO of Accelerate Basketball, Brandon Payne thought about the special case of Curry.
Payne has been working with Curry since 2011, and the pair did nothing but work on high-level shooting training. According to Payne, they always find ways to elevate Steph’s shooting workout routines to unfathomable degrees. Over time, they have learned to use technology as well to achieve incredible results.
“Making shots in workouts is no longer good enough. We’ve established he’s going to make a lot of shots in workouts. He consistently does that. So for us, we’ve utilized technology to be even more precise.”
Curry added, “We’re changing the rhythm, we’re changing the distance and we’re changing things dynamically.”
The Coach’s assessment
In December of 2021, Curry broke Ray Allen’s all-time record and became the greatest three-point shooter of all time, and nobody was really surprised. For Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Curry was meant to make history in the league not only because of talent, practice, and confidence, more importantly, because of his impeccable mindset.
“He’s so strong-willed that he doesn’t let things bother him and he knows that the law of averages are going to play out. He has so much belief in himself that he’s going to keep shooting. It’s the same reason he shoots three-quarter court shots when there’s still time on the clock. He doesn’t care about the percentages,” Kerr once said of Curry.
Despite proving that he is one of one, Curry still grew a number of critics like any other NBA superstar. However, Kerr argued that even though nobody thought that an unconventional shooting and playing style would result in massive success, Steph still did it, and it’s one of the reasons why he would go down in history as one of the greatest players of all time.
“He was taking shots that — in my basketball blood — every coach I ever had would have a heart attack watching those shots. I had to get over what was instilled in my brain about what was a good shot and what was a bad shot. With Steph, you have to understand, part of what makes him so powerful is that he’s going to steal the ball at midcourt and pull up from 40 feet,” Kerr said of Curry’s greatness.