The guard for the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, and his spouse Ayesha began strategizing months in advance about how to make the Paris Games work for their family since they realized they were running out of opportunities to compete in his first Olympics.
That is, their burgeoning family.
The fourth kid of the pair is expected to be born in June, as Ayesha Curry disclosed in March. It isn’t totally coincidental; the pair planned ahead to make sure the Olympic months of July and August were free, just in case.
“We thought about it ahead of time, which was nice,” Curry said. “If the timing didn’t work at a certain month in the fall, we actually would have made a different decision knowing the Olympics were on the radar. So, thankfully, the Lord looked out for us and if everything goes to plan, I’ll be available this summer.”
Yes, that is the plan. Curry’s name was one of the twelve names that USA Basketball officially revealed on Wednesday as the starting lineup for the Olympics in Paris this year. Although there’s a chance the roster is altered between now and the first practice in early July due to injuries or extended playoff campaigns, Curry has long been hoping to make his Olympic debut this summer.
“I wanted to play in the last two that I was eligible for,” Curry said, referring to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the Tokyo Games that were delayed to 2021 because of the pandemic. “Watching guys that I’ve been competing against the last 10 years all have that experience win gold medals, watching three of my teammates (Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green) win gold medals, I knew I wanted to do that.”
The fact that Steve Kerr, Curry’s coach with the Warriors, is also the coach of the Olympic squad makes sense if it were part of the recruitment pitch made to him this time.
Actually, it wasn’t the case. Although Kerr wasn’t pressuring his best player to participate this year, Curry had discussions about a collaboration with Durant and LeBron James. Part of the reason for these discussions was the United States’ performance in the World Cup last summer in Manila, when they finished fourth with a less star-studded squad.
Kerr stated that “he wanted to do it.” He’s fired up. It seems to me that 2016 would have been the most sensible year. There was a pandemic in 2020. However, I’ve never had that conversation with him. We had been to the Finals in 2015 and 2016, and it wears you out. Then the pandemic struck in 2021, but looking back, it all makes perfect sense. Another thing for him to cross off his career list.
Not too many of the boxes are left unchecked. And this may be the last one left that matters at all.
In addition to being the all-time 3-point leader in the NBA, he has also won four NBA titles, been selected as an All-Star ten times, nine times (and most likely soon to be ten times) as an All-NBA selection, two scoring champions, two MVPs, a Finals MVP, an All-Star MVP, and a member of the squad celebrating the league’s 75th anniversary. This year, he even contributed to one of the most famous events in All-Star history when he competed in a 3-point shootout against WNBA player Sabrina Ionescu, whom he both mentors and looks up to.
The legacy was safe for a long time. However, a little extra gold wouldn’t go amiss.
“That’s the goal,” Curry said.
Curry and the Warriors finished the regular season with 46 victories, but they were unable to qualify for the NBA playoffs. On Tuesday, they lost 118-94 to Sacramento in a Western Conference play-in tournament elimination game. He will therefore play for real money again in July when the Americans get together for training camp in Las Vegas. On July 28, the United States takes on Serbia in their Olympic debut.
Curry has played with the words “USA” over his chest numerous times during the course of the previous 17 years. As a member of the under-19 squad that placed second in the U19 global championships and took home gold in the Global Games in 2007, Curry remarked, “that burned because you hate losing at anything.”
With the national squad, he has won 18 games and lost none since. The United States won both of its gold medals at the global championship (now known as the global Cup) in 2010 and 2014, going 9-0 both times.
“I definitely wanted this experience,” Curry said of playing in an Olympics. “I think the timing is just right. I’m later in my career. This is probably the last opportunity I have to play. And that made it a much easier decision to say, ‘This makes sense.’ And then I was talking to some other guys who were interested in playing, so you knew this could be a great team.”
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