Warriors superstar Steph Curry has no shortage of jaw-dropping, clutch shots throughout his illustrious basketball career.
But when he looks back on it and reflects, one shot in particular stands out over the others.
“From my eyes, it’s the shot against Gonzaga when I was at Davidson,” Curry told Complex’s Speedy Mormon in a recent interview. “Everybody has these moments where if things went a different way, in that moment, your life could go a different path. I really feel like that was a difference maker in terms of not just that run that we had, because that was the first round, it was a tie game with just under a minute left. Andrew Lovedale, my big man at Davidson, got the biggest offensive rebound and it was like slow-motion.
“He got the rebound, pawed it with one hand, threw it to me. I made it and we go up three. That just started to snowball of what that tournament run was. And then your stardom kind of goes up a little bit and you carry that confidence. Not to say I wouldn’t have been able to figure it out had we lost that game, but that was a big moment that had that shot not gone down, who knows how it would’ve played out.”
The game Curry is referring to took place on March 21, 2008, when Curry dropped 40 points to help his No. 10-seeded Wildcats defeat the No. 7-seeded Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Curry shot 14-of-22 (63.6 percent) from the field and 8 of 10 (80 percent) from 3-point range, with three rebounds, two assists and five steals in 39 minutes.
While he was hot from beyond the arc, it was the trey he took with just over a minute remaining that forever will be engraved in his memory. The triple gave Davidson a 77-74 advantage and forced Gonzaga to call a timeout; the Bulldogs never recovered and ultimately fell 82-76.
Curry then led the Wildcats to upset No. 2 seed Georgetown in the second round and No. 3 seed Wisconsin in the Sweet 16. Their Cinderella run finally ended against the No. 1 seed Kansas in the Elite Eight, as Curry and Davidson were just one win away from the Final Four.
“I think about that stuff a lot,” Curry told Mormon. “My faith is a big part of who I am. There’s no real rhyme or reason; stuff happens and you’re always grateful and thankful and trying to find the purpose of it. That’s a moment that was in my formative years where you fantasize had this gone a different way.”
It is all part of the butterfly effect, and Curry — and Dub Nation — surely is happy with how things turned out.
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