[ad_1]
Stephen Curry, just 10 3s shy of breaking Ray Allen’s all-time 3-point record, has put together the kind of historic career through 12 seasons that every young player dreams about.
In a generation defined by shooting, Curry is regarded as the best.
“I think people have compared him to myself and to Reggie [Miller] and to other past shooters, great shooters in the NBA, but he really operates somewhat in a lane of his own,” Allen said recently.
It wasn’t always that way, though. Curry was once a 180-pound rookie — still better known as the baby-faced guard from Davidson College who had burst onto the national stage thanks to a smooth jump shot and a confidence beyond his years — competing in his first 3-point contest alongside some of the NBA’s best, including Boston Celtics swingman Paul Pierce and Denver Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups, who are currently ninth and 18th on the all-time 3-point list, respectively.
“I’d watched the three-point contest my entire life,” Curry told ESPN. “My dad had been in it plenty of times. A lot of guys that I looked up to, Reggie [Miller], Ray [Allen], Rex [Chapman], a lot of dudes that I know that experienced that and I was so excited just to have the first opportunity.”
As a commentator for Turner Sports, Miller knew he was seeing the future of basketball flash before him during that 2010 All-Star Weekend in Dallas.
“Here comes my guy right here!” Miller exclaimed as Curry got set for the first round.
It didn’t take long for Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith to see what Miller saw in the Golden State Warriors point guard.
“Reggie, he shoots like you,” Barkley said. “Even when he miss, it looks good.”
Curry closed the night falling just short of Pierce after missing three of his five shots in the final rack, but he knew in that moment that he belonged on the biggest stages the game provided.
“I lost, finished second, but the talk around the sidelines, like all the guys, all the All-Stars, all the guys who showed up there [was] ‘Ahh, I’m…
[ad_2]
Source : espn
