Stephen Curry is still feeling the glow of winning the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament last weekend.
He grabbed the title with an eagle putt on the 18th green on Sunday, but it’s a shot he made Saturday that continues to reverberate: a hole in one on the course’s par-3 no. 7. After draining the pitching wedge, he sprinted down the fairway in celebration at speeds not normally achieved by golfers unless they’re riding in a motorized cart.
“I had to show off a little bit of athleticism,” Curry tells Deadline. “I kind of blacked out, so I don’t even know where that top-end speed and going from zero to a hundred real quick came from. But that’s what happens when you don’t have any real preparation for thinking that hole in one was going to happen.”
The success on the links is all the more impressive because golf isn’t even his best sport. Curry, for anyone who hasn’t heard, is one of the greatest players in NBA history, a four-time champion with the Golden State Warriors and the career leader in 3-point shots made. His improbable rise to the top of the game is told in the documentary Underrated, which began streaming this weekend on Apple TV+. As the title suggests, at every stage – high school, college, and even the pros – Curry was considered too short and slight of build to ever amount to anything special.
“I was the undersized, scrawny kid that was always trying to make it at whatever level I was playing in,” Curry says in Underrated. “I didn’t pass the eye test.”
The film directed by Peter Nicks and produced by Ryan Coogler shows how Curry made up for a relative lack of height (at 6’2”, he’s shorter than most NBA guards) by pushing himself from his earliest days as a player, a regimen he has sustained throughout his career. He engages in a daunting routine of weight training, coordination and flexibility drills, along with countless hours on the practice court (the film shows him sinking three-pointers with his left hand almost as smoothly as with his dominant right hand).
Curry compliments the filmmakers for showing “the amount of reps that I’ve put in to do the things that I’m able to do and build the confidence that I have in my skillset. Basketball and sports is a microcosm of life… You’ve got to continue to make daily decisions to commit yourself to whatever you’re passionate about or whatever you want to be successful at… You just can’t skip the grind.”
He said he was running a bit late for our interview after finishing up a workout. “You always have to keep doubling down, no matter what level you get to. Because, for me, there’s always more to accomplish. And it only comes through that true passion and commitment to what you’re doing.”
Curry garnered some attention as a high school player at Charlotte Christian in North Carolina. He wanted to attended his parents’ alma mater, Virginia Tech, but the school sniffed at his height. Coach Bill McKillop of tiny Davidson College recognized his ability and potential and recruited him to the Div. 1 school in North Carolina.
“We just got a steal,” McKillop remembers thinking. And he was right. Curry led Davidson to unprecedented success in the NCAA tournament, leaving after his junior year to enter the NBA draft.
But a scouting report on Curry prepared in anticipation for the draft dismissed his prospects: “Far below NBA standard,” the report scoffed. “Do no rely on him to run your team.”
The negative commentary didn’t deter him. “I feel like that has been such a consistent part of my experience on the court at every level,” Curry says. “Coach McKillop’s ability to see me for what I am and not what I wasn’t or what I was lacking… I had that in my corner, which made the criticisms that I got… way more of a motivator — not to prove whoever wrote the draft report wrong or [being] mad at the world because nobody could see what I was good at. It was mostly a reminder to do what my mom always told me from day one, which is prove yourself right.”
He says that positive reframing “pushes you back into what your process is on a daily with the work that you put in, your gratitude and appreciation for the level that you’re at and continuing to find joy in everything that I do. I think those are intentional and controllable things that you can stick to on a daily basis, which helps you deal with some of the criticisms that come your way.”
Anyone who’s ever been doubted or told they lacked the necessary ability to achieve their goals may find inspiration in Underrated. Coogler, the Hollywood heavyweight director of Creed, Black Panther, and Fruitvale Station, highlights something else about Curry that impresses him.
“He doesn’t forget where he came from. He doesn’t forget the people who gave him the tools that he uses every day,” Coogler tells Deadline. “He continues to find ways to honor them, to honor their relationship. I think that’s probably the most inspiring thing for me.”
Coogler, an Oakland native, lives in the Bay Area city where the Golden State Warriors play and is almost as much of a fixture at Warriors games as Spike Lee is in New York for his beloved Knicks.
“I sat in the bleachers; I sat in the nosebleeds, and I’ve been everywhere in between there and courtside. I think it’s the greatest show on Earth, man,” Coogler exclaims. Curry’s got one of the greatest strokes the game has ever seen, but Coogler says he also admires what no. 30 does when the rock isn’t in his hands.
“Watching Steph move off ball is pretty intense because you get to see how physical the game is for him,” Coogler observes. “The other teams try to beat him up and pull on him and try to bump him when he’s running off screens. And so, you get that appreciation for the resilience that he’s playing with and a lot of the physicality that goes unnoticed.” Coogler adds with a laugh, “There’s been a couple games where he’s hit game winners and kind of gave me a high five. It’s great, a lot of real fun experiences.”
Undeterred shows Curry working towards another goal – completing his undergraduate degree, something he promised his mother, Sonya Curry, he would do. Last year, he received his diploma with a major in sociology. That same year the Warriors won the NBA championship in an extremely competitive series with the Celtics (Curry was named the NBA Finals MVP). The title came just two years after the Warriors had finished with the worst record in the league.
The Warriors made it to the playoffs this season but were ousted by the Lakers and LeBron James. They added veteran guard Chris Paul in the off season. We couldn’t resist asking the star of Underrated about how the 2024 season is shaping up for the Warriors.
“We brought our core back — myself, Klay [Thompson], Draymond [Green]. Adding CP [Chris Paul] is very interesting considering our history, but in terms of his ability to help elevate teams, he has done it his whole career,” Curry says. If the team makes it to the playoffs, he says, “I feel like we can beat anybody. We’re not that far off, and excited about the journey ahead.”