Released on July 21, 2023 on Apple TV+, Stephen Curry: Underrated is about the Golden State Warriors point guard and his rise from undersized high school and college player to a four-time NBA champion. Curry is also a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player, an NBA Finals MVP, an NBA All-Star Game MVP, and a nine-time NBA All-Star known for this three-point shooting range.
I’ve been a Curry fan for years and have enjoyed watching him play in the NBA Finals for the last decade. Maybe because it’s the effortless way he makes being a point guard look easy. Or maybe I started paying attention because of his adorable daughter Riley who was always in the press room as a toddler making cute comments and lightening the mood. In a league full of flashy players, Curry always seemed to exude confidence with grace and without arrogance.
All that being said, I learned a lot from watching this documentary. For example, I had no idea he was small and therefore extremely underestimated as a basketball player. As a high school senior, he was only recruited by one place – a small liberal arts college located in North Carolina called Davidson. It takes a while for Curry to find his groove but when he does the footage of him playing in college ignites the film. He’s 18/19 years old and looks maybe 15. He’s so young and scrawny but with one hell of a three point shot. And because he’s so young (born in 1988) the footage isn’t too grainy!
A bulk of the documentary talks about Curry leading his Davidson team to the NCAA Tournament aka March Madness for the first time in decades. If you don’t already know that story (I didn’t) I won’t ruin it for you because it’s inspiring and another example that truth can be stranger and more exciting than fiction. I will leave it at that.
Speaking of inspiring, Curry’s parents are an integral part of the film and their son’s biggest supporters. His father is former NBA player Dell Curry and his mother is Sonya Curry who played volleyball for Virginia Tech, earning all-conference honors in the Metro Conference as a junior. From high school through college, Dell and Sonya are at every game cheering Curry on in such a way that you almost wish they were your parents! And Curry’s response to them definitely got my tears going. What’s interesting is that their other son, Seth Curry, who also plays in the NBA, is never mentioned.
My favorite quote from his mom: “It wasn’t about proving other people wrong. It was about proving himself right.” Speaking of Sonya, the mother/son dynamic throughout the documentary is, of course, one of my favorite parts. While the story focuses on Curry’s basketball career, the side story about education is interesting, unexpected, and inspirational. I won’t spoil that either – you’ll have to watch.
Basketball fans – especially Curry fans – will love Underrated. Everyone likes an underdog story and this is definitely that. I had no idea Curry was an underdog which made the film even more fun to watch because it served as a reminder that you really never know what someone has gone through until you know.
The kid who was deemed too small for college basketball (nevermind the NBA, nevermind someone who could lead a team) set career scoring records for Davidson and the Southern Conference, was named conference player of the year twice, and set the single-season NCAA record during his sophomore year for most three-pointers made. He then left Davidson early to be chosen by the Warriors as the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft. During the 2012-13 season, Curry set the NBA record for three-pointers made in a regular season and then broke his own record in 2015 and again in 2016. In 2021, he set the NBA record for career three-pointers made, surpassing the great Ray Allen.
So much for those who doubted Curry repeatedly.
Leave a Reply