Today, Stephen Curry is one of the biggest superstars in the NBA. The future Golden State Warriors legend has a sensational resume during his career in the league. When he retires from the league, apart from being regarded as one of the greatest shooters of all time, he will also be known as a phenomenal scorer.
In fact, Steph is one of the only players in the history of the NBA to have multiple NBA titles, MVPs, and scoring titles to his name. While Curry may have these records to his name now, during his college days, he wasn’t this big of a star. But Curry’s scoring during his three college seasons was enough for him to be treated differently by opposing team coaches.
Stephen Curry Was Once Held To 0 Points For An Entire Game, But At What Cost?
Stephen Curry attended Davidson college and slowly but surely became a crucial member of the Wildcats. Steph’s shooting and scoring were always a danger for his opponents. But at one instance, he received one of the rarest treatments from the head coach of the Loyola basketball team, Jimmy Patsos.
The game took place during Steph’s junior season in 2008, and Patsos had just one mission for that game. It was to stop Stephen Curry from having a dominant game on the offensive end of the floor. To counter that, Patsos told his players to double-team for the entire game.
Well, the result of this tactic? Steph was held to 0 points. But was it worth it? Certainly not, as Davidson still ended up winning the game by 30 points despite Curry not scoring even a single point. This is what Patsos said of his strategy:
Via NBC Sports:
“We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I’m a history major. They’re going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30? I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I’m not some rookie coach.”
After seeing this tactic being played by Patsos, Steph simply asked his opponents what their end goal was. And how long did they intend to play this strategy?
“Every dead ball I asked them how long they were going to do this. They really didn’t say anything. They weren’t very conversational about it.”
“I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve stood in the corner for 25 seconds every time,” Curry added.
The then head coach of Davidson College, Bob McKillop, was confused about what reasons Loyola had to resort to this strategy.
Via Bleacher Report:
“It seemed to me they were willing to risk the game at the expense of locking Steph up. When you put two people on somebody and you do it for 30 minutes and at the end of the game, you have to wonder what the reasons for that are.”
At the end of the day, Davidson won the game with a score of 78-48. But it definitely proved that even during college, Curry was very mature. Instead of focusing on his ego, he accepted the fact that standing in the corner throughout the game would be better than risking the win for his team.
Despite not scoring even a single point, Curry still managed to rack up 3 rebounds and 3 assists in the victory. While he was double-teamed for the entire game, Curry still managed to take 3 shots. Of course, he went 0-3 from the field.
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Stats via Sports Reference.
