How Warriors star Steph visualized gold medal win at Olympics

How Warriors star Steph visualized gold medal win at Olympics originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Each and every one of Steph Curry’s awe-inspiring shots like his “Double Bang” game-winner against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016 or his “Golden Dagger” at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics to win gold for Team USA feels like an out-of-body experience for fans watching him take shooting a basketball to parts unknown. And then, you remember Curry’s relentless routine and work ethic have him prepared for these kinds of moments.

Curry practices every shot imaginable. Off balance. On the run. Right hand. Left hand. Unfathomable distances. The Warriors superstar is prepared for any possibility.

In a different, newly-formed way, Curry also made sure he was ready to tackle the one thing missing from his storied résumé: Wearing gold around his neck on the Olympic podium as the national anthem played.

“I envisioned the moment the entire time,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area on the latest “Dubs Talk” episode. “That was part of the mindfulness meditation that I was going through.”

Leading the comeback against Serbia and running around the court with his signature ‘Night Night’ celebration against France looked like his latest physical marvels from afar. The real deciding factor might have been a mental skill that Curry has recently turned to.

Yes, even Curry gets nervous. It’s a natural feeling, even for the all-time greats. For him, he sees those butterflies as a combination of performance anxiety and the extremely high expectations he places upon himself. Curry already has forever changed an NBA franchise and he certainly knew what was at stake for himself, his coach in Steve Kerr and the rest of Team USA if they didn’t get the job done.

But this time, he didn’t have a seven-game series to figure out a defense and adjust.

The Olympics were a call back of sorts to when Curry first burst onto the national stage, drowning in his Davidson jersey and opening our eyes to what was to come in the next two decades. Basketball would never be the same. Once he and Team USA graduated from group play at the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/warriors-star-steph-visualized-gold-151708228.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-11-21 15:17:00

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