‘Representing the Wildcats is always special’: Steph Curry on Davidson and the Olympics
The college has fewer than 2,000 undergraduate students.
Only 16,000 people live in the town.
But one name is known amongst every person who’s from there — Stephen Curry.
Curry put Davidson on the map — a name nobody had heard of until March Madness of 2008. He burst onto the scene, leading Davidson within one win of the Final Four, and never looked back.
The Charlotte native, who graduated from Charlotte Christian School, and Southern Conference freshman of the year was underrated for the early part of his career, but has proved time and time again he’s one of the best to ever shoot a basketball. The All Star is known for his 3-pointers, with the most all time in the NBA, and that didn’t start when he was in the pros.
He ranks first all-time in Davidson history with 284 from his college days. He’s the school leader in free-throw percentage (.874) and second all-time for Wildcats with a career scoring average of 23.7. The All-American and Wooden Award finalist has proved doubters wrong since getting into the league, after certain teams opted to pass on him, as he ended up going seventh to the Golden State Warriors.
The rest is history - four NBA titles, two-time NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP, NBA All Star MVP just to name a few of his accolades. It took a few extra years for Curry to graduate from Davidson - 13 years to be exact — but it was well worth it as he became the first Davidson athlete in any sport to have his jersey number retired.
“Everything that I do in basketball is pretty special from a basketball perspective, knowing how small the school is and not a lot of professionals come from there,” Curry said.
Curry became the first Davidson basketball alum to compete in the Olympics. He’s one of four Olympians/Paralympians to have once been a Wildcat, joining Evy Leibfarth, Caroline Queen (Canoe/Kayak, 2012) and Kendra Berner (Para swimming, 2000).
He talked about Leibfarth, his fellow Davidson Paris Olympian who earned her first Olympic medal, a bronze in women’s canoe single slalom, earlier this week.
“We got two Wildcats in this year’s Olympics and this is her second time going through it but representing the Wildcats is always special for sure. We came a long way from (there).”
Curry is trying to do something no Davidson athlete has ever managed to do — win an Olympic gold medal and he has already set himself up in prime position to try to make that happen.
Anna Laible is a student with UNC Media Hub, a program with the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reporting from the Summer Olympics in Paris. Laible hosts the Speak Up Sports Podcast. Follow her journey covering her first Olympics on her Instagram (@anna_laible).
This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 12:39 PM with the headline "‘Representing the Wildcats is always special’: Steph Curry on Davidson and the Olympics."