Steph Curry addressed Warriors before Game 7: Draymond Green
Steph Curry’s dazzling, record-setting Game 7 performance in Sacramento carried the Warriors into the second round of the NBA playoffs.
For anyone who has seen Curry take over a critical game for Golden State, the 50-point showing was no huge surprise, even if Curry’s play itself was breathtaking.
Count Draymond Green among those who expected the two-time MVP to rise to the occasion. He knew Saturday that Curry had something special in store.
Green explained the story on his podcast: He sent a text to his fellow longtime Warriors, Curry and Klay Thompson, in the wee hours following Golden State’s Game 6 loss, saying he couldn’t sleep in the wake of the “gut punch” they had received from the Kings.
Curry replied a few hours later saying he couldn’t sleep either and that he wanted to be the one to address their teammates ahead of Saturday’s film study, rather than leaving the more vocal Green to do it. What followed from Curry prepared the Warriors for an intense win-or-go-home showdown.
“We got embarrassed on our home floor with an opportunity to close out a team and we never showed up,” Green said, paraphrasing Curry’s speech.
“He said if you’re getting on this bus, you’re making a commitment to this team. I don’t care how many minutes you play. I don’t care if you’re gonna play a single second. I don’t care if it’s points, rebounds, whatever it is. But if you’re getting on that bus, you are saying I am going to do whatever it takes as far as my preparation goes to win this game. We’re not going out like that.”
When Curry was done speaking, he left the floor to other players, but nobody could follow the superstar’s impassioned sermon.
“When he speaks, everybody better listen,” Gary Payton II told The Athletic after the game. “Because 30 is usually quiet and lets his game speak for itself. But he had to say what he had to say, because he knew what type of vibe it was.”
Curry spoke with his play on Sunday, slicing through the Kings’ defense repeatedly and making 20 shots from the field, including seven 3-pointers.
Green saw it coming.
“When he delivered that speech, I can’t say I knew he was going to come out and get 50, but I knew he was going to come out and do something incredible,” Green said. “And I knew there was no way he was going to allow us to lose that game.”
Curry’s on-court display Sunday is the stuff of legends, but the story behind Sunday’s outburst will go down with it as one of the premier moments of this Warriors dynasty.
“We talk all these great performances, Game 7 performances, and Steph Curry has the best one ever,” Green said.
Source: The Mercury News
