As I went through the metal detector here in Baltimore the security guy pointed at me and said -- "You almost lost --"
What? My keys, my hair thing?
"-- to West Virginia last week."
Oh yeah! I'm wearing my Sweet 16 shirt!
"But we didn't!" I said, smiling as I went.
Seriously -- seriously -- No. 1, 365 days ago I don't know if a Baltimore security guard would've known about us. No. 2, he would've said, "You almost beat UCLA last week."
Wow.
I could've missed this somewhere, but I read pretty much everything, and McKillop did say this the other night in the press conference after the game at the Garden:
"Stephen Curry is loved by his teammates. Loved."
I listened/watched the Davidson-WVU game from 12-2:30 with Dad, Patty, and Lindsay -- so fun! And last United Kingdom one!
We won a basketball game in Madison Square Garden.
It was so ugly.
We won in about the last 2 minutes.
Who do you think scored our last 13/14 points after being horribly off?
YAY!! We are pulling out ugly games in DECEMBER, folks. I know it's not great in a sense, BUT WE ARE MAKING CLUTCH PLAYS AND WINNING.
Jason and Thomas were there! They were on with Kilgo at the half -- JK: "We have our boys back!" Always. Always our boys.
He never stops shooting.
Never.
Not ever.
Back before LAST season, back when I had seen Stephen play in person all of once, back before the second straight 29-win season, back before Gonzaga, Georgetown, Wisconsin and a shot in the air -- back before all that -- I went to Davidson to report a story for Charlotte magazine and this is what the coaches told me: The kid can miss a shot. He can miss two shots, three shots, four shots, five shots, 10 shots. It doesn't matter.
He never stops shooting.
Lives in the moment. Never about the last one. Always about THIS one.
And so this is what I found myself writing, over and over, in my notebook tonight at the Garden.
He never stops shooting.
Back rim.
He never stops shooting.
Front rim.
He never stops shooting.
In and out.
He never stops shooting.
So there's more to say about tonight, much more, and I'll get to it, but right now I kind of want to go meet Meg and Chip and Eddie for drinks at the Playwright on 35th between 5th and 6th.
Just quickly, though, just so we're clear about what happened here. These guys played at Madison Square Garden tonight and they did so without their best defender. They got out-rebounded 58-32, which is hard to do, and gave up 29 offensive rebounds, which is hard to do, too. They missed seven free throws. A freshman walk-on played nine minutes. Most of the team was in foul trouble most of the night. And Stephen missed more shots than he has in goodness knows how long.
And they won.
On ESPN.
In The World's Most Famous Arena.
And when Stephen hit that first late three deep from the left wing, and then that second late three deep from the right wing, ESPECIALLY that second late three, this place was nothing but noise for No. 30 and the rest of the kids from the village.
"He is," McKillop told all the people at the press conference after the game, "a very, VERY rare young man."
