It started like any other basketball game in an open gym: Players sweated on the court, others waited on the sidelines, and spectators casually watched. Jessica Brogan, who had attended similar practice sessions with her two basketball-starved children, said it started out as a “normal open run.”
However, on this particular Saturday, there was an unusual electricity in the air at the Life Time gym in Folsom, California, as rumors circulated in the greater Sacramento community that a world-class basketball star was in town and might stop by. . Still, there were reasons to doubt it.
“I didn’t even tell my kids because I hear that kind of stuff all the time and it doesn’t work,” Brogan said.
Others, like Berry Roseborough IV, an area basketball coach who works with college and professional players, were more certain. Roseborough received a call from Marcus Kirkland, who was hosting the session, asking him to recruit his best players due to the expected attendance of this special guest.
On the morning of June 8, Roseborough called his students into town without revealing too much, just enough.
“You’ll probably be mad if you miss it,” Damarion Vann-Kelly said Berry told him.
Vann-Kelly had a hunch, which grew after Kent Bazemore, a G League player who spent 10 seasons in the NBA, came on board. About 10 minutes after Bazemore arrived and with a game underway, the shouts began: It’s Curry. It’s curry.
“All the little kids are screaming,” Vann-Kelly said. “Even the adults were screaming.”
Sure enough, Stephen Curry, wearing a light gray hoodie pulled over his head, walked in.
“I look up while we’re playing and I’m like, excuse my language, but, ‘Oh shit, Steph just walked through the doors,’” Roseborough said. “And you could feel it. …You feel all the energy of the gym radiate. “Everyone is almost in shock.”
Brogan looked at his children’s faces. Braxton, 13, turned red when he saw the four-time NBA champion, and Easton, 10, widened his eyes and smiled from ear to ear when he realized it was Curry stretching nearby, he said.
It is not uncommon for NBA players to join amateur games as a way to stay informed, especially during the league’s offseason. Players with college and professional experience, including Bazemore, regularly attend races Kirkland hosts in the Sacramento area. The two met at a gym in 2022 and stayed in touch, according to Kirkland, bonding over a shared love of basketball and a desire to pass that love on to others in their community.
Bazemore encouraged Curry, who was in the area for his daughter’s youth volleyball tournament, to stop by the gym, Kirkland said. Curry, whose NBA season ended in April with the Warriors’ Play-In tournament loss to the Sacramento Kings, will make his Olympic debut at the Paris Games next month as the United States men seek their fifth Olympic medal. consecutive gold.
“We’ve had a lot of (NBA players) come into our careers, but never anyone of the caliber of Stephen Curry,” Roseborough said. “That was like ‘Wow.’ “
Brogan called it a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” for his family.
During a roughly two-hour session, Curry taught a master class. He and Bazemore teamed up, playing five-on-five against Kirkland, Vann-Kelly, Roseborough and others. Brogan and his sons watched in amazement along with a growing crowd that became so large that security asked people to leave, he said.
Naturally, Curry complied. Roseborough said he noticed Curry’s pace and how simple his game is.
“He didn’t do anything more than he needed to do at the time,” Roseborough said. “His catches from him, basically the way you pick up the ball before taking the shot, were so fast you couldn’t even see them.
“Then his release. It’s shooting, it had to have been in 0.3 seconds or less. It doesn’t matter if it is challenged. It looks the same every time. It always comes from the same finger.”
Vann-Kelly, 17, a 6-foot-5 guard with Division I career aspirations and recent graduate of Monterey Trail High, added: “He was doing them all. He was nothing more than clear. How he attacks (Curry), you can tell why he’s at the pro level. All his movements are perfected. He has great patience and great overall skill.”
During one game, after Curry crossed Kirkland for a step-back 3-pointer that missed, Curry recovered the ball from a pass and then hit the game-winning 3-pointer on his next attempt. By reflex he celebrated with his iconic “night, night” gesture. A clip of the moment, taken by Brogan and posted to his Instagram, went viral.
Steph Curry comes to Night Night in an open race in Sacramento 😴😂🔥
(via jessicabrogan/ig) pic.twitter.com/kIPOodso1P
– TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) June 9, 2024
“He’s a generational player, his IQ,” Kirkland said. “He’s just different.”
Markus Kirkland guards NBA icon Stephen Curry during a pickup game in Folsom, California, on June 8. (Courtesy of Markus Kirkland)
But it wasn’t just Curry’s viral shots and elite ballhandling that left the gym buzzing. He impressed in another way, according to those who were there. They noted how Curry introduced himself to each player and shook their hands. He asked their names and told them not to be nervous.
“The guys were trying to give him the ball so he could score all the points and he told them, ‘No, we play basketball as a team.’ We’re not going to play like that,’” Roseborough said. “He was actually setting up other guys to score. He was giving confidence to the players and other people who were there.”
After a series of eight or nine games, largely dominated by Curry and Bazemore, Kirkland said, the two took photos with the other players and kids Kirkland invited to watch, including Brogan’s children.
“It just made everyone in the building feel good,” Roseborough said. “He made everyone there feel comfortable. And that was crazy to me, how his energy really affected everyone in the building so much.”
(Top photo of Steph Curry and Kent Bazemore with other players: Courtesy of Marcus Kirkland)
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