Even though we see them go to war day in and day out, NBA players have very good relationships for the most part, and LeBron James and Stephen Curry aren’t the exceptions to that trend.
Curry and James have faced off in the NBA Finals multiple times, with the Warriors star getting the last laugh more often than not. They were both born in the same hospital in Akron, Ohio; and it seems like their paths were always meant to cross.
As a matter of fact, their relationship goes way before Curry became the greatest shooter of all time. Recently, the Warriors superstar revealed that James even gave him a jersey when he was still in college.
Stephen Curry Reveals The Gift From LeBron James He’s Kept For Over A Decade
“I was a sophomore in college and LeBron was coming to my games!” Curry told GQ. “I actually still have the jersey he gave me. He signed a jersey for me. I think that was November of my junior year. On my wall at my parents’ house in Charlotte, it’s still there. And he wrote it to me, called me the king of basketball in North Carolina. So I guess it’s like the corny idols-become-rivals thing.”
Curry Wasn’t Much Of A Star Back Then
James must’ve been a visionary or may have done it out of respect for his father, because it’s not like Steph was a well-known prospect back in the day. In fact, Bob McKillop, his coach at Davidson; admitted that the program barely gave him a scholarship at all:
“We went to see him play in Vegas in an AAU tournament the summer before his senior year,” coach McKillop said“He played in one of the auxiliary gyms, not the main gym. There were very few people at the game, and even fewer coaches. I felt pretty good knowing that only a couple of guys were watching him.”
“And he was awful. He threw the ball into the stands, he dropped passes, he dribbled off his foot, he missed shots. But never once during that game did he blame an official, or point a finger at a teammate. He was always cheering from the bench, he looked in his coaches eyes, and he never flinched. That stuck with me,” he concluded.
Some things can’t be measured. Sometimes, intangibles make players go from just another guy on the court to a legend. Fortunately, McKillop was able to see through his mistakes and gave him a chance, as we would’ve never gotten those LeBron-Curry matchups if it wasn’t for him.