Today we’ll get to know another NBA superstar who followed in his father’s footsteps. Wardell Stephen Curry Jr. comes from a talented family of athletes, he was the back to back MVP in 2015 and 2016, and probably one of the most humble players in the game. Steph Curry became a huge sensation as he brought the winning culture back to the Bay. Today’s topic is “10 Things We Didn’t Know About Stephen Curry”

1: No Major Division 1 offers

Steph wasn’t a top high school recruit although he led his team to three conference titles and three state playoff appearances. It might come into play that at the time he was only 160 pounds and 6 feet tall. He received offers from VCU, Winthrop and Davidson and as we all  know he chose to attend Davidson. After his freshman season, he finished second in scoring behind future NBA superstar Kevin Durant. His sophomore season, he led his team to their first NCAA Tournament since 1996, and they made it to the Elite 8. His junior season, he averaged 28.6 points, 5.6 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game. He didn’t stay for his senior year because he decided to declare for the 2009 NBA Draft, and was picked 7th overall.

2: Met his wife at 15 years old

They first met at church at a group that they both attended. Ayesha and Steph have 3 kids together. They were just friends at first, but lost contact when Steph went to college. After he led Davidson to the Elite 8, he was invited to come to LA for the Espy’s. She was living in Los Angeles at the time and Steph remembered that she moved there to pursue her acting career. They did touristy things like take a picture with the Marilyn Monroe statue on the Walk of Fame. They dated for years and finally tied the knot in 2011. After two girls, he finally got a boy after his third try. During the 2015 playoffs, Steph’s daughter Riley took all the spotlight off Steph for once. Fans began to fall in love with Riley and his family in general as he started bringing her to his post game interviews by the press. He has the perfect little family and it makes it even better that he married his childhood sweetheart. 

3: Starred in a Burger King commercial

As we know, Steph’s father, Dell Curry Sr., was in the NBA. Thanks to his dad’s popularity, he got to star in a Burger King commercial at a young age with his father. 

4: Fav Player growing up was Muggsy Bouges

Just like Muggsy, Steph was a bit undersized growing up especially in the basketball world. He looked up to Muggsy because he gave him the motivation to continue to play even though, he wasn’t the biggest player around. Tyrone “Muggsy” Bouges was only 5’3 and played for the Warriors in the NBA. He was the shortest person to ever play in the NBA. He played point guard, just like Steph, and he was known for his speed on the court. 

5: Friends with Obama

The 3-time NBA Champ has had his share of visits to the White House. He’s become friends with the past president and his family. Barack Obama is actually a huge basketball fan and has been seen playing basketball and attending games. They both are also avid golfers and have been seen on the green together for some friendly competition. Steph says that if he had to choose any other sport to play, it would definitely be golf. According to Golf Digest, he shot two-under par at Pebble Beach one year. 

6: Addicted to popcorn

Steph, just like his father, has a love for popcorn. He loves popcorn so much that he’s ranked every NBA arena on a scale of 0-5 with freshness, saltiness, crunchiness, butter, and presentation. Keep in mind that there are 30 NBA arenas. His top choice was the American Airlines Arena, who is the home of the Dallas Mavericks. And the worst popcorn award went to…the Staples Center, home of the Lakers and the Clippers. 

7: His Mom fines him for his turnovers

So as we stated before, Steph comes from a very athletic and talented family and with that comes high expectations. Even at his age, his mother has say in some things. She fines him $100 for every turnover he committees after his third one. So three is the magic number. His mother has high expectations for her son. 

8: Left Nike for Under Armour

Many fans didn’t follow Curry early in his career, but of course as more and more success came, the more fans that came on his bandwagon. He was actually signed to Nike early in his career, but ended up switching in 2013. Nike made some mistakes that they will probably always regret. First of all, Nike spelled his name wrong. Secondly, they showed Steph a powerpoint that was meant for Kevin Durant. So they didn’t customize it for him. And the worst of all, top executives didn’t even show up to his meeting. Who knew this would cost Nike $14 billion dollars that they could’ve had. Steph chose to switch to Under Armour and was treated like the king he was. 

9: Christian

Steph has always been open to sharing his religious beliefs with the world. For every game he writes the scripture on his shoe “I can do all things” Philippians 4:13. He’s been doing this same game day ritual since attending Davidson. 

10: Met Kevin Durant at an AAU tournament

Durant saw Steph draining threes from across halfcourt at the gym where they both played in an AAU basketball tournament. He said that Steph scored like 35 points against his team. KD was confused on whom this 10 year old kid was, but who knew later on down the road they would both be stars in the NBA and even playing together for the short time they did. 

So Steph Curry, or shall I say, Wardell Stephen Jr., has an interesting life and personality. There’s many more things we don’t know about the 2x MVP and 3x champ, but I hope you learned a little more about the superstar.