Steph Curry: My Inspiration

One thing about me is that I’ve always been a basketball fan. I played basketball throughout my adolescence and the sport has honestly been a big factor in shaping me into who I am today. Now I haven’t played for a couple of years, but there are players that inspired me during my youth and continue to inspire me now. One of which is Stephen (Steph) Curry. 

For Black History Month, I thought it would be appropriate to write an article about how Steph Curry inspired me as a childhood basketball player and as a person. 

First, for those of you who don’t follow basketball or know who Steph Curry is, let me just set the scene. Curry plays for the Golden State Warriors in California where he is a four-time NBA champion. He is also a two-time NBA most valuable player. I won’t get into all of his stats but just know that he is pretty great. Along with Curry’s wonderful achievements, his work ethic was one that inspired me a lot. Standing at six feet, two inches, he is known as a shorter NBA player. (Short to the NBA but definitely not to us.) Obviously, I, being five feet, is not the same, but it was always encouraging to see another “short” player accomplish such great things. He made me want to work even harder, not to prove myself to others but to prove myself to me.

 A Steph Curry signature move is his seemingly effortless three-pointers. As a young middle schooler, I would find myself being entertained for hours watching clips of Warriors games and Curry clips. Like Curry, I’ve always been a small girl who needed to put a lot of pep under the ball for it to go through the net just for a free throw. Seeing Curry sink three-pointer after three-pointer motivated me to do the same. I can recall my middle school basketball practices; with Hand Clap playing in my AirPods (that was the song in the background of my favorite Steph Curry edit) I would shoot 3 pointers for the duration of each water break, trying to be just like my favorite player. 

I eventually started making those shots which I owe to Steph Curry. Thank you for being an idol to that thirteen-year-old girl who wanted to be just like you when she was older. And thank you for being an inspiration to that older girl who can see how much he really impacted her childhood years. That girl also still has her jersey and sneakers that she will sport on Warriors game days. 

• athlete
• basketball
• Black History Month