The son of sharp shooter Dell Curry, Stephen Curry‘s NBA pedigree is well documented. There are even photos and videos of a young Curry, sitting on the sidelines during Toronto Raptors games. But when he watched his father play or practice, Curry wasn't just a youthful observer, he would also shoot around and work on his handle with Dell's teammates. Curry would also even engage in shooting contests with his father's teammates, like Mark Jackson, who would later be his coach with the Golden State Warriors.
In these contests, you would think that since Curry was just a middle schooler, he would routinely get schooled by NBA players, who after all, play the game professionally. But that wasn't the case as Curry would hold his own. And against Jackson, Curry reportedly even would go shot for shot with the veteran guard.
From an excerpt of Marcus Thompson II's book Golden (which was shared with Bleacher Report):
These middle school warm-ups were small potatoes for Curry. He'd been in practice with his father having shootouts with NBA players. He'd give Toronto point guard Mark Jackson all he could handle in shooting competitions.
Jackson was a player yet he wasn't known for his shooting. For his career, Jackson shot 44.7 percent and 33.2 percent from three. But even still, it is pretty impressive to hear that Curry as a middle schooler would be able to keep with up Jackson.
It is also quite amusing that they two would then later go on to have a coach-player relationship, especially since Curry likely enjoyed ribbing Jackson about those shooting competitions from his youth. But perhaps those shooting contests are one reason Jackson dubbed Curry as one of the best shooters in the history of the league, a prophetic claim that originated from his days playing alongside the Warriors All-Star's father in Toronto.
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