Written by Sam Amick at USAToday.com
How’s this for the Stephen Curry branding that you never saw coming?
The NBA’s reigning MVP, this Golden State Warriors star whose image is as pristine as you’ll find in pro sports, is a bold-faced liar.
Just ask him.
“I thought I was good (to play) tonight, so my word is not very good on that front,” Curry told USA TODAY Sports after his Warriors downed the Houston Rockets 115-106 without him on Monday night at Oracle Arena to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference first-round series. “I’m going to approach (Game 3 in Houston on Thursday) like I’m playing for sure.”
But enough about the ankle injury that limited him to head cheerleader duties on the Warriors bench. Curry was more interested in talking about his teammates than he was himself.
Anyone who has been around Curry for any length of time knows that this is no act. His selfless style has been one of the keys to the Warriors’ rise to the top, the kind of quality that allows everyone around him to grow and thrive. Some players suck the air out of the room, but players like Curry have the rare ability to breathe life into it. And even when he didn’t play, when his teammates were delivering a demoralizing loss to the Rockets without him, it was there for all to see.
One minute he was leaving the floor in frustration before the tip, disappointed that the right ankle that he tweaked in Game 1 on Saturday wouldn’t cooperate. With hordes or reporters and fans watching his every move and wondering if he’d take part, he cut his routine short and even punched the ball on his way off the floor for good measure.
Yet some 90 minutes later, with Curry sporting a suit coat and a collared shirt on the sideline, he looked like someone who had been selected on The Price is Right. He danced with more than enough spirit to make Warriors coach Steve Kerr and the rest of them nervous. In the second half, he was relegated to the second row after losing his front-row seat to a second-year player James Michael McAdoo — a testament if ever there was one to the way Curry and his Warriors are wired.
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