Stephen Curry is not just a basketball star anymore. The shooter is a genuine global sensation, with his popularity being outmatched by only LeBron James worldwide. Curry is having a massive cultural impact of his own, as fans gravitate more towards the small guard that has incredible shooting ability due to it being a more realistic path for basketball aspirants than being born with athletic gifts like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.
Outside of that, Curry is one of the coldest players in the game. The 2022 Playoffs saw Curry flex on all his opponents with crazy celebrations. Two of the most recurrent ones were either Steph’s iconic shimmy or the ‘night night’ celebration. The latter usually only comes out when Curry has put the game out of reach for the opposing team.
In the world of European football or soccer, in a pre-season friendly game between FC Barcelona and Juventus, Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele scored the first goal of the game in the second half and decided to celebrate in classic Curry fashion.
Ousmane Dembélé hit @StephenCurry30's 'Night, Night' celebration after scoring for Barcelona 🥶
(via @FCBarcelona)pic.twitter.com/J1Wz8RZ2w5
— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 27, 2022
Curry’s impact is spreading across the world. We have seen basketball celebrations enter the world of soccer before. These players have been seen using NBA celebrations like rocking a baby, the pot is cooking, and even LeBron’s iconic ‘Silencer’.
Soccer has its fair share of iconic celebrations, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘siuuuu’ celebration and Lionel Messi’s iconic celebration of raising two fingers to God after scoring.
The culture of sport and competition is universal, even if the games are different. The impulse to celebrate after a goal or a basket is natural for everyone, and these players get to act these out at the highest level of their sport. Considering goals in soccer are less than made baskets in the NBA, getting a chance to celebrate a goal is special, and Dembele made the most of it.
