MV "Salon" commemorates Curry's top three-point list Every step from now on is history
On December 15, 2021, 7 minutes and 33 seconds before the end of the first quarter of the Warriors' road game against the Knicks, Curry shot from a distance, which was his second three-point shot in the game, and the NBA career three-point shooting reached 2974, breaking the all-time regular season three-point record held by Ray Allen. So far, Curry has taken all the NBA regular season and playoff three-point records into his pocket, crowning him with the undisputed first person to three-pointers, for the basketball era he pioneered.
For this milestone, there have been many renderings before, and when this moment really comes, there is a kind of natural indifference, Curry breaking the three-point record is not news, it is not broken.
An athlete who turned an incredible miracle into an "ordinary" probe, Curry is unique.
Curry, who used to be really ordinary, was rejected by the major basketball schools when he graduated from high school, on the grounds that the child's physique looked weak and could not help the wind.
When Curry turned the tide in the crazy March and prepared for his next NBA stop, the scouting report was very unfriendly to him, and one of the sentences went like this: "His physical condition, facing the NBA's defense may be very difficult." ”
In the 2009 draft, the Timberwolves had the fifth and sixth picks in the first round, and they needed a point guard, but ignored Curry and chose Rubio and Flynn. The Warriors took curry in seventh place, which came from the insistence of then general manager Larry Riley, and there were different voices within the team, such as Curry and Jordan Hill, who is better?
In 2012, Curry and Ayesha's eldest daughter was born, and Curry decided to name the child "Riley", and he did not forget the former general manager of the Warriors.
Even in 2021, skepticism about Curry continues. When the Warriors renewed Curry's four-year, $215 million contract, multiple team executives raised a common topic, will Curry's contract become a burden on the Warriors in the future?
Curry's NBA career started off to a rough start, his ankle was constantly injured, he once twisted his foot without any interference when dribbling, and the ankle surgery in 2012 made Curry doubt whether he could continue to play. Filk, the surgeon in charge, told Curry that he might face a major surgery to rebuild the structure of his ankle, even removing part of the healthy Achilles tendon from a deceased patient's body to replace it, and if he failed, his career would be ruined.
Fortunately, when the doctor opened Curry's ankle, he found that the situation was not as serious as he had expected, but even so, Curry was still recuperating from his injuries for three months after the operation, and this sprain-surgery-recovery cycle, like a sharp knife, cut through the early years of Curry's career. "My feeling at that time was that I didn't do anything but recuperate." Curry said.
Even in the years of the unanimous MVP, Curry suffered injuries, and a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee in the 2016 playoffs gave him the opportunity to end the season with a championship. "His right knee is wrapped in layers of bandages and gauze, and when removed, it is a dazzling redness and swelling, which contrasts sharply with his left knee." Warriors reporter Marcus Thompson said.
Fractures to the metacarpal bone in the 2019-20 season and coccyx injuries in the 2020-21 season have all become obstacles in Curry's way forward. By the time Curry became the three-point king of history, he was already scarred.
Not only contempt and pain, but also failure. The 2016 Finals were reversed, 2019 passed with a triple crown, 2020 and 2021 consecutive playoffs, Curry was most depressed, once angrily smashed the wall of the locker room.
Success, He once had a smooth sailing, only wind and rain. Curry sweated to pave the ladder to MVP, scoring champions, championships, and now the three-point king of history, and his training is different from most players, pursuing an ultimate perfection.
"It's not a matter of length of time, I've seen a lot of players who spend a lot of time training," said Warriors equipment director Eric Howson, "Curry is particularly about the difficulty, he's not interested in the average three-pointer, he's focused on practicing complex dribbling off ultra-long-range projection, his free throws have to be hollow into the net, and a lot of times it's left-handed." For each training program, he must complete it five times in a row without flaws before moving on to the next stage, and as long as there is the slightest dissatisfaction, he will start over, no matter how much time it takes. ”
Shooting requires talent, but shooting can't be done with talent alone. In 2019, Curry was interviewed by Tencent Sports, and when talking about the topic of training, he said this sentence: "I hope everyone can understand that I don't go to bed every day and hit those shots." ”
Outstanding pitchers rely on the muscle memory formed by accumulated training, there is no other way, the game will not give you time to adjust the movements into the shooting comfort zone, the shot is only in an instant.
"Shooting doesn't have time to think, you need muscle memory to function," Curry told Tencent Sports, "the best shooter can always maintain a steady shot, no matter how many times to stay consistent, depending on how much you put in training, and that's where my confidence comes from." ”
Curry's projection is unconventional, before his rise, three-pointers were only an auxiliary tool in the NBA, even shooting masters Ray Allen and Reggie Miller will control the release of three-pointers, and their career single-game 7 three-pointers combined is 35 games, while Curry's figure is 101.
Once, running-catching-shooting, which was the basic operation of three-point shots, Curry evolved into dribbling-shooting, upgrading a semi-passive way to fully active. Curry's butterfly-like dribbles should end with a breakthrough according to common sense, but he bombarded with three points, and even The Warriors coach Kerr, who was also a three-point master in the player period, was also nervous about Curry's shooting in the early days of coaching.
"He changed his judgment about whether the shooting chances were good or bad," Kerr said, "and in the first few months I coached him, I felt that half of his shots were not good choices, and then I and everyone got used to it." He shoots three-pointers, a lot of which he doesn't have room at all at the beginning, and he creates space by dribbling the ball, and every shot gives you the feeling of the ball going in, which sounds incredible, but it's his routine. ”
Curry is very much like Chamberlain at that time, the person who changed basketball, before Chamberlain, there was no big man to play like him, the league in order to limit him, expanded the three-second zone, increased the offensive interference ball. Also before Curry, there was no defender who operated like him, dribbling and no ball switching in both directions, crossing the middle line are fire points, he has the ball in his hand to see blood and seal the throat, and the empty-handed running position is killing.
Curry's three-point shot is difficult to predict, you can't perceive in advance how far he will be, how to throw the ball out, all you can do is to chase the ball at all times, pile up defensive forces, and even Box-1 (a four-in-one), which is a defensive treatment that the previous masters did not encounter.
"I've never seen a box-1 defense before, and in the era when I was playing, Jordan was the hardest to defend and we didn't discuss using Box-1, so I've never seen anyone defend like this before." Curry's father, Dale Curry, said.
Curry is a basketball change-maker like Chamberlain and a look-and-feel subversive like Jordan, making the extraordinary become a kind of "unremarkable", no matter what he does, it "deserves it".
"You're going to be numb to his performance," said Kerr, who was a teammate with Jordan, "and I think he's a lot like Jordan in a lot of ways, they're the kind of players who play really well and make you feel normal, and maybe that's the real sign of greatness." ”
Curry changed the concept of traditional basketball, widened the boundaries of the sport, ushered in the three-point era, and made "shooting like Curry" a trend. So, James would say curry is a once-in-a-century encounter.
ESPN once went into the primary school to visit Curry's influence on grassroots basketball, a coach who teaches fourth-grade children to play told reporters that the young players in the team are eager to shoot like Curry, to hit the super far three points, and then gently pound their chests, finger the sky, especially Curry's goal of killing the Thunder, in the hearts of children and Jordan's air hand change is as classic, and Jordan's actions, the average person can not learn at all, but Curry's shot, there is room for imitation.
"Stephen's athleticism looks more like an ordinary person in the NBA," Curry's college teammate Barr said, "and he's therefore more likely to resonate with fans, his success is not the kind of high and far away, people can see his shadow in him." ”
In fact, Curry is not "ordinary", basketball talent is a comprehensive concept, not limited to height, arm span, running and jumping and other things that can be quantified, technical understanding, game observation, concentration, hard work and love, are innate, the achievement of Curry's talent, as his former teammate Anthony Morrow said.
"When I was in the Warriors, I gave Curry the nickname 'middle school student' because he could maintain a simple passion for basketball like a middle school student, which is rare." Morrow said.
Many powerful stars can find similar templates in history, but Curry does not, and his style of play is a unique landscape of the NBA, defining this basketball era in a maverick way.
Before Curry, there was no shortage of three-point elites. After Curry, there will be more three-point shots. Perhaps, one day in the future, Curry's three-point record will also be refreshed, but his legend will not be old, and will shine with the baptism of time.
Because, it is a magnificent basketball beauty, a basketball journey that is unparalleled in the world.