Getty Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors reacts against the Boston Celtics during the fourth quarter in Game Six of the 2022 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 16, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
Every basketball aficionado has seen what Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry can do on the court. From his pre-game tunnel shot routine to putting opposing players like Chris Paul on skates, Curry’s ability to pull up from anywhere off the dribble and hit shots with such ease must be demoralizing for other teams.
For all the array of highlights we all see during games, there are probably tons of absurd clips during practices by Curry that were not filmed.
Warriors 2020 second-round draft pick, Nico Mannion, recently recounted a moment when the greatest shooter ever had him in awe on the LePodcast.
Within five days that Mannion was drafted, Draymond Green called a players-only scrimmage and Mannion got his first taste of what it was like to guard Curry.
Mannion recalls holding his own against his Warrior teammates at the time, and at that moment his confidence was not deterred. Then like Curry always seems to do, he pulled up one of his creative impromptu trick plays that left Mannion bewildered.
“There’s one play, he goes left and I go to cut him off, and he goes to go behind the back, kind of slips and falls at an angle so now his shoulder is to the basket,” Mannion recalls. “He’s sitting down dribbling the ball in his right hand, and I’m like I don’t know what to do, he just slipped, he’s on the ground.
“And as he gets up, he shoots. All in one motion. He steps back and shoots a three. I contest it and everything. It barely touches the net. It’s one of those where the net just kind of pulses. And Marquese Chriss goes to throw the ball in and I look at him and I’m like ‘What the f— was that?’ and he’s like ‘You’ll get used to it.’”
Since this is Steph Curry, it’s not too surprising. However, we have yet to see this specific play during actual games. As time goes by, expect to hear more stories of witnesses talking about plays and moves Curry has made that were not filmed.
“All the wild stuff you see him do, he was doing that every single day,” Mannion continues. “There was always one point in all our live scrimmages where there was a wow moment.”
Nico Mannion’s Rough Start Overseas
Mannion signed a two-year deal with Virtus Bologna, an Italian ball club in the Lega Basket Serie A league. After his rookie year with the Warriors, he made the move to playing overseas in hopes to get more playing time and gain more experience.
However, his first season with the Italian club has not gone how he wanted to. During the start of the season, Mannion contracted an intestinal virus in Tokyo while playing in the Olympics and was out for multiple weeks.
Apparently Nico Mannion got an intestinal virus while in Tokyo for the olympic games and will now be missing several weeks due to the stomach virus. Looks like he’s lost a lot of weight. Hoping he gets better soon.
The delay impacted Mannion’s ability to contribute much on the court, playing sparingly in 11.4 minutes per game. It also did not help that former legitimate NBA rotation players, Marco Belinelli and Milos Teodosic were ahead of him in the rotation.
Mannion Hopes to Return to NBA at Some Point
With one year left on his contract with Virus Bologna, Mannion said on the podcast that he hopes to return to the NBA soon. For teams to take note, he will have to play more and contribute on a larger scale next season.
It’s not all bad for Mannion, as some NBA teams had an interest in bringing Mannion over to participate in Summer League. He’s only 20 years old, and the sky’s the limit for the young guard. His ability to handle the ball and shoot the three-ball will always have the NBA interest.