The 33-year-old player from Golden State has surpassed Ray Allen’s record reaching 2977. «Now that I have hit the record I feel like saying that I am the greatest shooter. The secret? The injuries that allowed me to think about a new approach to basketball and my work “
The champion who at 33 still has the face of a child has rewritten history: «I never wanted to consider myself the greatest shooter ever before setting this record. Now that I have hit it, I feel like saying that yes, now it is just like that ». After 789 games in the NBA, Wardell Stephen Curry – in the Golden State Warriors’ 105-96 win at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks on December 15 – became the player who has scored the most three-point field goals in his career in the regular season: the new limit is 2977, but it is obviously destined to be updated because this guard who knows how to shoot in a soft and feral way is far from retreating and now he can even target the goal of 3000. Curry gave a scream with joy as his teammates celebrated him, then he hugged coach Steve Kerr – who took over the record ball to give it to him – and his father Dell, former point guard from Utah, Cleveland, Charlotte, Milwaukee and Toronto. It was an expected and wanted record, even if the last few days must be pretty tough for Stephen. He admitted it: “For a week, after our last home game, we only talked about this and the fact that I was now close to the primacy of Ray Allen (2973: after bypassing it, Curry added three more triples). And with every three-pointers scored it seemed that anxiety and the level of attention towards me increased ».
Appointment with history
Thus the second greatest son of Akron, Ohio (the first is obviously LeBron James, who at birth, in the same hospital, had the same obstetrician as his future colleague), was able to take a weight off his shoulders when everything happened. He also chose the perfect place for his appointment with history, the Madison, the iconic basketball facility, a place of worship for great sports feats and where Steph essentially made himself known to the world for the 54-point test with 11 triples on February 27, 2013. In addition, he hit the record ahead of Reggie Miller, his idol in his youth and third in the classifies each era (he was at Madison as a commentator on TNT), and of Ray Allen, obviously present.
“My special destiny”
After a little more than a decade (Allen overtook Miller on February 10, 2011), Curry is hoisted to the top of this ranking with a “space” performance because the previous record holder – who also played the Jesus Shuttlesworth of “He got game”, film by Spike Lee from 1998 – it took 1300 shots (almost 40% more) to get to 2973 targets. «Ever since I started playing basketball – added Curry – I have had a special destiny, even mad, to think this moment was possible. I am proud of being able to score with high percentages, which makes it easier to win games, but now I am also proud for having reached and overtaken Ray ».
Curry’s secret? Injuries …
At this point, two things are true: the first is that Curry – who has a brother who is also of excellent level: he has been in seven NBA teams and has been playing in the Philadelphia ’76ers since 2020 – is truly the greatest shooter ever in history. professional basketball; the second is that the champion of the Golden State Warriors has revolutionized the way of striking from a great distance. In the first case, the crude figures speak for themselves: it holds 11 records that can be linked to triples. In the second, we need to go back to the very complicated first part of his career: he was frail in the ankles and up to the age of 24 he had to face a lot of accidents. Instead of getting depressed, Steph made this an opportunity to improve: “The injuries have allowed us to think about a new approach to basketball and my work.” The turning point in 2011. While undergoing yet another rehabilitation in Charlotte, he met Brandon Payne, a trainer who had previously worked with other basketball players. “It was he who explained to me that I didn’t need to be on my feet, at the risk of forcing recovery time prematurely, among other things. A chair was fine to work on the ability to control the dribble and on the coordination between eyes and hands ». That partnership then continued and served to fine-tune a winning method in based training on offensive aggression and shots from ever greater distances, with the aim of improving accuracy (Curry’s pre-match warm-ups are famous, in which he is seen shooting with great effectiveness from the half court). So the child-faced champion learned not to be afraid of anything (“It doesn’t matter if the one next to me is taller, bigger or faster. If I have the passion, if I have the heart to challenge him, most of the time. Sometimes I win “) and to be a perfectionist:” I know I’m not perfect on the pitch and not even in life. But I try to follow higher and higher examples. Sometimes I finish a game with incredible stats, but the first thing I look at is how many balls I’ve lost. I may have scored 50 points, but if I have lost more than three balls, and maybe some of them badly, that’s not good. I’m always looking for the perfect match. No, if you’re wondering, I haven’t done it yet … “.
Unbeatable for years
The question of the moment, once the record has been established, is: who will one day be able to overtake Stephen Curry, given that in the NBA the three-point shot has become central? There are those who ventured Luka Doncic, but the truth is that in the seasons he will still play Stephen will bring the bar so high that the numbers of his leadership will be locked up for a time much longer than it took him to dethrone Ray Allen. His record will resemble Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s overall points record, guarded by a castle that is now impregnable.
December 15, 2021 (change December 16, 2021 | 07:21)
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