Steph Curry is one of the GOATS of basketball. In fact, it can easily be argued that he is the greatest outside shooter to have ever played the game. Curry holds the record for career three-point baskets made and the most in one season (402). He is also the only NBA player ever to be voted the league’s MVP unanimously.
With his amazing basketball resume, it’s interesting to learn that Curry was often overlooked when he was a young player. Why? Curry was usually the smallest player on the court.
In the GameChange podcast, GameChange Mindset, company co-founder Jack Baric tells the story of how Curry had to relearn how to shoot all over again as a young middle school player because the release point on his shot was below his chin, not strong enough to shoot from above his head.
The pattern of being one of the smallest guys on the court followed Curry throughout high school and greatly hampered his recruitment by college teams. A native of North Carolina, Curry dreamed of playing for Duke or maybe at Virginia Tech, where his dad, Dell Curry, a longtime NBA veteran, played college ball. But neither school recruited him. In fact, Curry only received a couple of offers from smaller schools, including Davidson, where he ended up playing.
A phenomenal player, Curry could have pouted at the lack of respect that bigger programs gave him and resented only having the chance to play at Davidson, a small school that not even the most ardent of college basketball fans might have heard of. But that’s not Curry’s style. Instead, he just went to work and led Davidson on a magical run to the Elite Eight at the 2008 NCAA March Madness tournament. The legend of Steph Curry was born in that tournament.
Curry’s gratitude for the opportunity to play D1 basketball instead of lamenting what could have been at a bigger school is an important lesson in high performance mindset that we can all learn. When listening to experts talk about the various mindset practices that one can employ to develop a high-performance mindset, you will almost always hear them list gratitude as one of the important principles that should be included.
Why gratitude?
- Having gratitude creates a can-do positive spirit by reframing challenges through focusing on what you have at your disposal rather than fixating on what is missing. A positive player performs better.
- Gratitude is scientifically proven to improve mental health. People who practice gratitude are shown to have higher self-esteem, lower anxiety, better sleep, and greater happiness. A healthy player performs better.
- Having gratitude increases confidence because a grateful person more easily overcomes insecure thoughts by focusing on the victories, instead of the defeats. A confident player performs better.
- Research has shown that having gratitude increases our ability to think more creatively. A creative thinker performs better.
- Having gratitude creates a positive culture that reduces stress, celebrates innovation, and builds shared purpose, all essential for teams to perform at their best.
