Warriors superstar Steph Curry doesn't curse much, but one phone call during his college tenure prompted a rare response from the 3-point king.
By now, many people know the story of Curry coming out of high school and dreaming of joining a power college, particularly Duke or Virginia Tech, where his father, Dell, played. Instead, Curry attended Davidson College, a small private school, after all the major programs overlooked him.
But what some might not know is that many of those high-profile colleges regretted that decision after Curry's freshman year at Davidson. As explained by Rex Chapman -- a longtime family friend of the Currys -- many college coaches called Chapman to inquire about and try to recruit Curry.
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Chapman emphasized how full circle the moment was, stating that how just one year prior, Curry was "dying" to walk on at a college like Duke. Chapman even tried to make some calls to help Curry's dreams, but he, too, was turned down.
Curry turned heads during his first season at Davidson, averaging 21.5 points on 46.3 percent shooting from the field and 40.8 percent from 3-point range, along with 4.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals in 34 games (33 starts). His freshman showing put big colleges back on Chapman's phone line -- this time being the ones making the calls.
Chapman told Dell that a handful of top-15 colleges now were interested in Steph. After hearing about the sudden interest in his son, Dell told Chapman to give them 24 hours to further discuss it.
But there wasn't much to discuss.
Golden State Warriors
"The next evening Dell called me and said he talked to Stephen and Stephen thought about it overnight," Chapman recalled, as described in a lengthy post to X, formerly known as Twitter. "Then he said, 'Rex, you know Stephen doesn’t cuss much but this morning he said, 'Dad -- eff them. They didn’t want me then and I don’t want them now.' "
Curry continued to shine at Davidson, reaching the Elite Eight in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, and the Warriors selected him in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft. More than a decade later, Curry still credits his time at Davidson for shaping him into the player and man he is today.
Curry was fueled by rejection, and the rest is history, as those colleges certainly feel remorseful for overlooking the kid who grew into an NBA icon.
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