Steph Curry and Klay Thompson wouldn't be nicknamed the Splash Brothers without innate confidence in their shooting ability.
Steve Kerr learned that to hilarious effect during his first season on the Warriors' bench, recounting an anecdote to KNBR's "Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks" on Friday that just about perfectly epitomizes the pair's assuredness. In Kerr's telling, the Warriors led the Chicago Bulls on the road by eight points with about a minute left when Thompson launched a 3-pointer early in the shot clock.
"Steph makes a steal in the frontcourt, so we've got a new (shot) clock," Kerr recalled. "I think (we're) up eight or nine, something like that, and he throws it to Klay in the corner -- 22 seconds on the shot clock -- and Klay shoots and misses. ... The ball goes out of bounds, the Bulls take a timeout or something. I go over to Steph, I go, 'Steph, what was Klay thinking on that shot?' He goes, 'Yeah, I know, coach. He really should've pulled that ball back out.'
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"So, you know, I didn't want to get on Klay or anything, so I get on the plane, I watch the tape. As soon as Steph threw him the ball, both of Steph's arms went in the air like, 'This is in!' ... So I called Steph back on the plane. I'm like, 'Remember when we had this conversation? Look at yourself!' He goes, 'Damn, my bad, coach.' "
Kerr told the hosts the game was in January 2015, but some amateur sleuthing box-score digging revealed the game in question was probably Golden State's 112-102 win in Chicago on Dec. 6, 2014. The play-by-play log doesn't corroborate all of Kerr's story, as Curry's lone steal occurred in the second quarter and none of Thompson's six misses from beyond the arc occurred as quickly as Kerr described.
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Now, Thompson did steal the ball in the frontcourt off a bad pass from then-Bulls big man Pau Gasol with just over a minute left and the Warriors leading by nine. Thompson missed a 3 about six or seven seconds later, depending on which play-by-play log that you look at. Of course, the box score doesn't count for Curry's alleged arm-raising, but the story certainly sounds like the Splash Brothers, right?
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The best legends are rooted in reality, and Curry's reaction certainly is in-character. Still, I couldn't track down footage of the celebration in question, so Kerr's story might be too good to be true, given the other details that weren't quite right.
The first adjective of that idiom is good, however, and Kerr's tall tale certainly fits the bill.
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