STANFORD, Calif. – In an alternate reality, Warriors fans and the NBA world at large never got to experience the mind-blowing greatness of Steph Curry.
There wouldn’t be highlight compilations of Curry crossing defenders and shooting from unimaginable distances. Mike Breen’s double-bang is locked in a box begging to be released. The Warriors might still be waiting for their first championship since 1975. Chase Center would have never been built, and the 3-point revolution isn’t even a concept.
One man changed the game that much.
But in reality, Curry and basketball were bound for each other. Maybe not in a Warriors jersey, and maybe not wowing crowds of all ages and backgrounds. The holy matrimony between the two was inevitable, one way or another.
Even if that meant coaching. That’s the path Curry once saw, and not patrolling the sidelines of an NBA arena.
“I didn’t know that he was going to end up playing basketball,” Curry’s wife, Ayesha, recently revealed on an episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “He said he wanted to be a high school basketball coach. I thought I was going to be, like, the girl out there getting it. I didn’t know.”
Curry laughed but didn’t deny Ayesha’s admission in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area on Wednesday at the Stanford Golf Course during his sixth annual Workday Charity Classic.
He grew up in locker rooms and on basketball courts. His father, Dell, played 16 seasons in the NBA for five different franchises and was named the 1994 Sixth Man of the Year as a member of the Charlotte Hornets when he averaged a career-best 16.3 points per game off the bench while shooting 40.2 percent from deep. Curry can credit him with having the game in his blood, helping turn a skinny kid into the greatest shooter of all time.
However, Dell isn’t the reason Steph saw coaching in his future. The leadership and community impact he witnessed from his mother, Sonya, opened his eyes to that being his likeliest career.
“My mom was an educator growing up, so I kind of understood how to connect with people,” Curry said. “Seeing people learn a skill, or learn anything really, and that joy that comes with accomplishment, that always got me going.”
This year marked the ninth Curry Camp, bringing some of the best boys and girls high school basketball prospects to the Bay Area for three days. It also was the first year that the Curry Camp model was brought overseas to China as part of his 2025 Curry Brand World Tour.
Back in March, he even accepted a role as assistant general manager for the basketball programs of his alma mater, Davidson College, and later hosted the men’s team for a surprise workout last month in the Bay Area, going through drills, sharing shooting tips and plenty more.
Curry has been influential from afar and through his camp for an always-growing long list of current NBA and WNBA players. Winning four championships, two MVPs and having a trophy case that can fill an entire living room is a life Curry wouldn’t change. Nobody would.
Coaching high school basketball also is something he says would have been an incredibly fulfilling life. What about coaching, at any level, in the future? Never say never.
“I mean, anything is possible,” Curry said. “Who knows what the future holds. But the idea of yeah, that alternate universe, I would have been happy as hell to be a high school coach, knowing how important that presence is for kids. Everybody has a role to play. I took a different path.”
The title of Coach Curry rolls off the tongue. Numerous all-time greats have picked up a clipboard in their post-playing days. Maybe one day that will be his reality. Maybe in a different life, Curry is counting his coaching championships at Charlotte Christian.
Rest easy, Dub Nation. The slightest possibility of Curry one day coaching can be put on the backburner. All that he cares about in his basketball life right now is the chase for a fifth championship, counting down the days until he’s back on the court with his Warriors teammates.
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