Stephen Curry’s influence on the modern NBA is unmatched. The Golden State Warriors superstar’s biggest impact has been the way that basketball is played in the NBA. Curry changed it with his insane ability to shoot three-pointers effectively.
So much so that now almost every player in the NBA has added three-pointers to their arsenal. Anyway, today we are not focusing on Curry’s impact with his three-point shooting ability.
Instead, he did so with an iconic celebration in the 2022 NBA playoffs. You might have already guessed that we are talking about Steph’s ‘Night-Night’ celebration. Curry pulled off this celebration first against the Denver Nuggets. But it has now become so popular that even FC Barcelona player Ousmane Dembele pulled it off recently after scoring a goal.
It became an instant hit, and he continued to do so till the 2022 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics as well. Speaking of which, Curry recently spoke about his true feelings on pulling off the ‘Night-Night’ celebration against the Celtics in an interview with Boardroom.
Via Boardroom:
It felt the best. The way that game went, it was an emotional rollercoaster. They came out just hitting every shot, and they were up double digits in the first four minutes. We slowly just crept back and then went on that 21-nothing run. When we came out in the third quarter, everyone was feeling it. Let’s just step on their throats, right now.
We came out hot and got the lead up crazy. I went wilin’ out, with the “ring on the finger” celebration, really early in the third quarter. [Laughs]
From there, it was just, “When is that moment, when we’ll know we’re over the hump?” When you’re trying to close out a series, let alone a Finals, it’s hard, and you feel every possession.
Every possession feels like an eternity. I hit that 3, and it was more so to let my team know, “We’re here. And we got the job done.”
I saw JP [Jordan Poole] over there [on the sideline], and he was egging me on to do it before I even did it. Seeing his smile and seeing everyone going crazy over [on the bench], it was kind of like the start of the celebration type of vibe.
It was a superb moment for Curry and the Warriors. After all, they ended up winning the 2022 NBA Championship.
The championship run was very special for the Dubs as they missed the playoffs consecutively for two seasons before winning the 2022 title. They made a comeback to the biggest stage in the world when most people wrote them off.
