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MENLO PARK, Calif. — Long before Stephen Curry became a star for the Golden State Warriors, his life was forever changed at Davidson College under legendary coach Bob McKillop.
McKillop didn’t just coach him, as his impact went far beyond the hardwood. The Davidson coach saw something in Curry early on and was one of the first people to notice the future superstar's enormous potential.
At Steph's annual Curry Camp, ClutchPoints recently sat down with Coach McKillop for an exclusive one-on-one. McKillop shared many of his favorite Steph Curry stories from his time at Davidson, as well as the one trait he saw from the future Hall of Famer that set him apart from every other NBA superstar.
The AAU game that changed everything
When Stephen Curry was in high school, few knew his name.
Most big-name colleges barely gave him a second glance. But one game changed everything for him, and it was one that Curry performed terribly in.
In July 2005, Curry — about to enter his senior year of high school — was attending an AAU tournament in Las Vegas. Bob McKillop was there, along with many other college coaches, to scout potential talent. But most were there, McKillop admitted, not to watch Steph, but to watch the bigger-name players and teams.
McKillop then wandered into a nondescript auxiliary gym where he came across a kid named Wardell Stephen Curry II. But Curry played terribly, McKillop remembered.
“He was awful. He dribbled it off his foot,” McKillop told ClutchPoints. “He threw a ball out of bounds, he shot an air ball, he missed a foul shot, and he got beat on defense.”
So, what caught McKillop’s eye watching this scrawny kid play poorly in a side gym?
For Coach McKillop, a measure of a player wasn’t just in how they performed on the court. It was in how they responded to moments when they inevitably didn't play well.
“Never once did he stop competing,” McKillop recalled. “Never once did he have the body language of ‘woe is me.’ Never once did he say, ‘I can't do this.' Never once did he complain to the refs. He listened directly to the coach during timeouts, looked in his eye, cheered his teammates when he was on the bench.
“I said to myself right there that he has the remarkable capacity to live in the moment… and that was the defining moment for me as a coach to give him the scholarship.”
What surprised Bob McKillop about Stephen Curry
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Curry did get that scholarship, but his stardom wasn’t immediately clear. In his first game with the Wildcats, Curry put up the kind of double-double no player wants: 15 points, 13 turnovers.
Just like in that AAU tournament in high school, McKillop was looking to see how Curry would respond to adversity. The next game, Davidson played Michigan, a basketball powerhouse.
McKillop’s Wildcats lost the game, but Curry went off for 32 points. And then, with national media surrounding him for the first time, Curry did something unexpected: he thanked each of his teammates by name for his big night.
“He showed what a great teammate he is,” McKillop said. “He showed the humility that he had, but he also had that belief in himself markedly improved as a result of the coaches deciding to stay with him.”
McKillop and the Davidson coaches kept believing in Curry, and their star guard kept delivering. In 2008, Curry famously led Davidson on a March Madness run to the Elite Eight, captivating the nation with his shot-making from anywhere on the court.
But for Bob McKillop, he knew what he was seeing and knew Curry would be special from the very beginning.
What separated Steph from the rest
Back in Curry’s freshman year, before the season even started, McKillop remembered what he felt after watching the youngster go through individual and team workouts.
“It exposes a lot,” McKillop explained. “After what I saw in those individual workouts … I went to an alumni meeting, a preseason rev-up-the-program kind of meeting. And I said, ‘Stephen Curry is gonna surprise everybody. He will go down in history as one of the greats to ever play Davidson basketball.’”
At this point, Coach McKillop was already sold on Curry's competitive spirit. But here, with Curry running drills in front of him, McKillop noticed something extremely rare in basketball players.
“He's got fast-twitch eye muscles. He's got fast-twitch ear muscles. He sees not just where the ball is — he sees where it's going to be. He doesn't see you where his man is, but he sees where his man will be, where his teammates will be. He sees all this in advance.
“Second thing with his ears — he can live in the present tense of hearing what's going on right now but seeing what will happen in the future in a remarkable capacity.”
As a college basketball coach for 33 years and never seeing this rare quality in players, McKillop revealed just how special these traits that Curry possessed were.
“That’s what separates it. That’s the greatness that is Steph Curry,” he praised. “There can be hundreds upon hundreds of players who shoot as many jump shots as he does. But they don’t have that special gift he has.”
The infamous ‘Popcorn Game'
Sometimes, though, that special gift can be held down.
Stephen Curry was held scoreless during a game in 2008. Entering a matchup against Loyola Maryland, Steph was the nation's leading scorer. But Loyola was determined not to let Curry score in the game, employing a triangle-and-two defense and double-teaming Curry wherever he went.
Four minutes into the game, McKillop recalled Curry telling the coaches of his plan. He wanted to just stand at half-court and let his teammates play four-on-three… for the entire game.
So while Loyola played their unique style of defense, Steph executed his plan to just stand around the entire game.
Davidson would go on to win by 30.
McKillop even detailed one specific moment when Curry was so bored that he asked one of the media members nearby if he could have some of their popcorn.
And Curry, a well-known popcorn lover, actually grabbed a snack from them in the middle of the game. Again, McKillop was in awe of Curry’s character.
“That’s a clear example of one of the basic building blocks of his life and his career and his persona: sacrifice equals reward,” McKillop praised Curry. “It's more important to win the game than to be the leading scorer in the country.”
Stephen Curry's most underrated skill
With Curry’s mix of character and basketball IQ, it was no surprise to his college coach that Steph has won four NBA championships.
As good of a shooter as he is, McKillop recognizes that this is just one aspect of his overall game. The former Davidson coach was quick to point to an underrated aspect of Steph’s game, one he has mastered throughout his legendary career.
“He set more screens this year than 3-point shots,” McKillop emphasized. “There’s so much more to his game, and that’s highly unusual for a guy at that level. He set something like 1,300 screens this year off the ball. That shows a new dimension that greatness has not seen in the game.”
From 2014 to 2022, Curry set over 5,600 off-ball screens, according to BasketballNews. In that span, the Warriors generated an astounding 1.03 points per possession from Curry screens, the best mark in the NBA.
What McKillop saw in college has translated to the NBA: Stephen Curry will always choose to sacrifice himself and his game to help his teammates.
From Davidson to Team USA
Nowhere was that clearer than at the 2024 Paris Olympics, when Curry joined forces with LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and other NBA All-Stars on Team USA.
Coach McKillop visited Curry at a Team USA practice ahead of the Olympics, and this was the last story he wanted to share — to define who Stephen is as a person.
At that Team USA practice, Curry told his former coach, “My biggest challenge with all these great talents is that we have to be a team, and I must be a leader. And that’s going to be my objective: to be a leader of this team to the gold medal.”
In the exhibition game right after that practice, Curry didn’t take the usual shots he would take in the NBA. Rather, he looked solely to elevate his teammates and get them involved. McKillop saw that same Curry through most of the Olympics, the unselfish player who was not looking for his shot but seeking his teammates.
“He was holding back because he was more concerned about distributing the ball and being a great teammate. And if you had noticed during those games, he was on the bench cheering, he was patting guys on the butt, and he was smiling. His body language was effusive with the amount of joy he had.”
In terms of his shooting, Curry finally stepped up in the semifinal game against Serbia with 36 points, including nine 3-pointers. And in the Gold Medal game against France, he scored 24 points, including four consecutive 3-pointers late in the fourth quarter to carry Team USA to their fourth consecutive gold medal.
Why then, on the biggest stage, and not earlier?
McKillop already knew the answer.
“Because they needed him,” McKillop emphasized. “That’s where he lived up to that judgment about, ‘I need to make this a team and I need to be a leader.’ And there it was, the defining moment.”
Stephen Curry's true legacy
McKillop added that nothing Steph has done throughout his illustrious career has surprised him.
Since way back at those individual workouts before Curry’s freshman season at Davidson, Coach McKillop knew he was going to be different. But McKillop believed Curry’s legacy was greater than championships. He knew his legacy would hold meaning that would last decades and change the game of basketball.
“[Steph] has made the game better. And that, to me, will be one of the lasting impacts of his career: how he has put his fingerprints all over the game,” McKillop reflected. “People argue about who is the greatest shooter? People argue, who is the best guard? No player in the history of the game will impact the game of basketball the way Stephen Curry has.”
The relationship goes both ways.
When Curry addressed reporters at Curry Camp, I had to ask him about Coach McKillop’s impact on his career.
Steph’s response was heartfelt, as expected.
“I am truly thankful that he had that kind of perspective on me when I was getting recruited,” Curry told ClutchPoints. “You have to have people who see your potential and instill that in you over time.
“And he was definitely the greatest at doing that for me.”
From college to Curry Camp
Coach Bob McKillop was Stephen Curry’s biggest fan almost two decades ago, wanting to give a scrawny, undersized kid a scholarship to Davidson College.
He remained Curry's biggest fan throughout his time in college, and the former coach has still kept in contact and been by Steph's side throughout his NBA career. In fact, at Curry Camp inside Arrillaga Family Gym in Menlo Park, McKillop wasn't there to spectate.
After Curry finished his media session, he went straight to the court, but not to lead this time. Instead, it was Coach McKillop who was guiding elite high school players in drills and scrimmages. He was barking orders and spurring them on, his booming voice echoing throughout the gym.
McKillop retired from coaching in 2022, but he willingly joins the Warriors star at Curry Camp every year to aid his former player he coached years ago. More importantly, he is able to continue adding to Curry's legacy as a mentor, believer, and friend.
This unbreakable bond has elevated Curry to new heights, and in McKillop's words, it's made him a better human.
“That’s the extraordinary aspect of coaching and just being around him,” McKillop stated. “The coach is supposed to make players better. Somehow, Stephen always makes coaches and teammates better.”
That, McKillop explained, was the foundation of who Curry is as a person.
“He has tremendous confidence, but he balances that with humility. And that humility is him thinking that this is a gift from God. So it’s not just [Curry] doing it; it’s the grace of God running through [him] that does this.
“I believe that one of his greatest strengths is that he sees with the eyes of the heart. If we could somehow surgically implant that same capacity in humanity, we’d have a better world.”
