“How fun is it for you to watch him play every game?” comes the question from my newest friend, court side (yes, court side) at the 90-78 win over Elon Monday night.
I think his question is rhetorical, but I answered anyways. It’s a lot of fun.
Later, I got a text message from a high school friend. Lauren, is that you on the end of the table at the Davidson-Elon game? … Yeeees, what are you doing here?
I came with some friends. To watch Curry, came the response.
It’s weird, isn’t it, when worlds collide? Makes me think about how three years ago, I didn’t know Stephen Curry existed.
About how, being from Charlotte, I was familiar enough with Davidson’s basketball tradition to take the job. About how I heard, don’t expect much this year, we lost a ton of seniors and scoring... blah blah blah.
I didn’t really know Coach McKillop, but I heard him talking about this freshman, this Stephen Curry. And I heard about how unusual this was for him.
I remember first noticing Jason Richards, thinking this kid is pretty good. Not knowing that he was only just arriving, too.
And I will always remember when they arrived.
I can’t remember people not knowing about Stephen, but I remember that first season when the media requests started pouring in for “Steven Curry.” Sometimes, Steph-On. But never Steff-in. I can’t remember Stephen Curry, before he became a fixture in the SID office. I remember Stephen, DOBO Jeremy Henney and Will Bryan making a mask of Jason for PTI. Explaining who Charlie Rose is, and why he should make good choices about clothing for national television.
I remember, after Detroit, probably after the summer, discussing this blog. Someone said, you should do it without saying his name all season.
Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t notice, but I took the challenge.
There’s no way you can come up with 30 nicknames, he says, mocking me.
And yet, every week … What are you gonna use this time? He will inevitably ask.
I have no idea. I’m going to need you to do something funny or inspiring before you leave today. And he will try.
They weren’t all great, and The Cheese probably doesn’t care for the one that seems to have stuck, but this is the story as we have written it. His story.
It’s going to take something great, something extraordinary, to get your name mentioned, is his challenge.
I wanted 50 points, but Saturday, 30 needed 30 to become the all-time leading scorer in Davidson history. I think we can all agree that’s extraordinary.
You can’t script this stuff.
And while I made notes on all 30 points, the moment is what we’ll remember. Nearly turned over, Stephen saves it, and with a jumper in the paint, becomes the greatest in Davidson history.
The ensuring ovation leads me to believe you think he’s fun to watch, too.
Monday at Elon?
It was fun to watch the whole lot of Wildcats, wasn’t it? Going into the do-or-die Southern Conference tournament, I very much like looking at the final box score. I very much liked another impressive outing from SteVe Rossiter. The WL. (Yes, I did the claws from my faux seat on press row). WILL. Andrew.
It was fun.
What’s next?
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