Photo Credit: Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Sonya Curry Confesses That She Was Doubtful Stephen Curry Could Make It To The NBA

In 2008, Stephen Curry was one of the most exciting college players.

After his crazy NCAA Tournament performance where he was averaging 32 points per game for Davidson in their Elite Eight run, leading the nation in scoring with 28.6 points per game, Curry was finally putting his name on the NBA lottery pick projections.

But coming from a program that’s not considered elite in the NCAA, Curry had to wait until the 7th pick in his 2009 NBA Draft, and also the reason the Minnesota Timberwolves passed up on him twice. 

The Wolves had the 5th (via Washington) and 6th pick of the first round. On top of that, they were planning to get two guards. When it was their turn, Stephen Curry was still on the board, but the Wolves went for Ricky Rubio (5th) and Jonny Flynn (6th).

In retrospect, it was an awful decision, but at the time, no one saw the incredible career of Curry coming.  At the beginning of his NBA career, his ceiling didn’t appear as high. Curry’s coach at Davidson, Bob McKillop, had his story to share and spoke about how Steph even started off as an awful player.

“He was awful. He threw the ball into the stands, he dropped passes, he dribbled off his foot, he missed shots. But never once during that game did he blame an official, or point a finger at a teammate. He was always cheering from the bench, he looked in his coaches eyes, and he never flinched. That stuck with me.”

Back when he was in High School, even Steph’s own mother, Sonya Curry, was skeptical about her son’s career and even was worried about him. That’s what she revealed when appearing on TODAY.

“Talking in an interview, she told about how the Curry brothers got in the game. She said, “We never pushed sports on them, they knew the game. They watched the game, they were children who went to the games, sat, and watched. They were students of the game…

…It was probably would be Stephen’s junior year right before he went pro. I was still asking his coach McKillip, are you sure you can do this? Because really you know, a lot of children do this, they aspire to be NBA players. We see many never reach that.”