It takes lots of effort and work ethic to became a four-time NBA champion and receive a Finals MVP award, but Stephen Curry has managed to achieve both, having his father Dell as his role model.
The Golden State Warriors guard comes from a basketball family, with his father having played and with his younger brother Seth currently plying his trade at the Brooklyn Nets.
“He’s definitely better than I was,” his father Dell told GQ in 2016.
“I had a two-dribble limit. He’s probably best off the dribble. His range is definitely farther than mine was.
“But it’s a different NBA. I would never take 35-foot 3-pointers with 17 seconds on the shot clock.”
Dell spent 16 years in the NBA, featuring for teams such as the Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers and Charlotte Hornets, winning the Sixth Man of The Year prize back in 1994.
“I saw my dad and how he carried himself as a professional and it helped me transition into the NBA,” Curry said in 2018.
Steph Curry’s summer workout with his father
When Steph struggled in his bid to polish his shooting ability, his father spent a summer with him before his sophomore year reworking his jumper and release from the inside out.
“[It was] the most frustrating summer for me,” Stephen told Sports Illustrated in 2013.
“I really couldn’t shoot outside the paint for like the first three weeks. All summer when I was at camps people were like, ‘Who are you, why are you playing basketball?’
“I was really that bad for a month and a half [before] I finally figured it out.”
His brother Seth said that Curry even thought about giving up and he would end up crying in practices.
It was at Davidson college when Curry finally stood out, registering 40.8 percent in three-pointers as a freshman and 43.9 percent as a sophomore. He also set an NCAA record for most three-pointers made in a single season with 162.
“He was a good shooter,” his father said.
“But when he started shooting against the best in the world, that’s when I knew, ‘Oh, okay’.”
Curry was selected by the Warriors in the 2009 draft and, along with Klay Thompson,Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr, established one of the most successful teams in the NBA history.
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