OAKLAND, CA — Here’s the video I’ve been saving for over a year now, although today I realized that was dumb. You see, the NBA prevents us credentialed media from posting more than two minutes of continuous video from practice (there’s even more broadcast rights-related draconian rules beyond that; I won’t get into that right now).
So back on March 9, 2019, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to publish any footage longer than two minutes, I first noticed Stephen Curry was ON FIRE:
Seeing him hit many, many threes is normal. Seeing him crazy hot like upwards of 90% makes (you can sort of feel it) is rare, like when he hit 93/100:
I said to myself, “Alright, I’ll film more than two minutes, just in case.”
Sure enough, his hot hand continued and this time, I counted 34 in a row. That’s not even half of the purported 77 in a row that Bruce Fraser told reporters Curry once did behind closed doors back a few years ago (I want to guess somewhere between 2015-16), but that’s still the most in a row from him ever filmed. Only problem: the footage was over three minutes long. I went ahead with my business of covering the Golden State Warriors on the daily, they went to the Finals in Toronto, blah blah blah — I’d somewhat forgotten about this footage until the pandemic hit and I purposely re-released all my over-two-minute footage of Steph. I was just waiting for the right time for this one.
Well, today while recounting the made threes (Curry went 17-for-20 before the 34 straight, as you can see for yourself), I realized that the string of 34 in a row actually spanned only about a minute-and-a-half! So, in essence, I could’ve still published the 34 in a row, all by itself, and it would’ve still been under the NBA’s (draconian) rules. Thus: 🤦🏻♂️
I guess I just filed away in my brain that the footage was longer than two minutes and, therefore, restricted by the NBA. The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously changed things. There’s no NBA games for me to cover; media at the Orlando “bubble” are paying thousands of dollars to cover it. Ergo at the moment there’s no credential for them to yank from me. And whenever “normal” Golden State Warriors coverage returns, I’ll just have to take these videos down. There’s only like a handful of them anyways. Click here for the playlist.
Yesterday Juan Toscano-Anderson tweeted: “Having the opportunity to be around greatness, really changes your whole mindset and approach. I used to think making 10 3’s in a row was elite. Until I got to watch the Splash bro’s get shots up. Let’s talk about 25-30+ in a row. ELITE”
…so I thought today would finally be the day to publish this (also makes you wonder what “JTA” saw yesterday during his workout, maybe, at Chase Center with Curry and Klay Thompson there? 🤔)
Incidentally on that day in March 2019, I was told by another by-standing reporter, Ashley Nevel, who covers the Phoenix Suns, that Steph had hit 41 in a row in the aforementioned first set:
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Nevel tweeted that, but only had partial video of the 34, which Bleacher Report aggregated and amplified three days later. For whatever reason she deleted all her tweets prior to Christmas 2019, but I just got confirmation from her and she pointed me to the above embedded Instagram post from that day.
Curry scored just 18 points against the Suns that night! 🤷🏻♂️ He was “mired” in a three-game mini-slump that would only last for one more game. Just goes to show you that workouts after practice and morning shootarounds and pregame routines don’t necessarily produce immediate results. They are all part of the bigger picture.
The best part of the video is how obviously frustrated he is when he finally misses one. Because he knows he can do better. We all know.
The pursuit of perfection is entrancing.