"Stephen Curry"

0:06Hey, listener. It's Stephan. I'm here a little early for my episode. I think we're probably waiting for Jason to clean his golf shoes and get his equipment going, which is very disrespectful for the golf community. But, you know, nevertheless, I'm here. This is Smartless. Smart. Less.

0:30Smart. Less.

0:36Smart. Less.

0:43Listener, we had a record earlier this morning. Went very well. Very fun. Nice. We had a, today's a twofer. And we had a, what, a three-hour break, something like that. Yeah. What'd you guys do? Will took a nap. Will, did you really? I did take a nap. I did too. No way. I took a little nap, not too long. I watched, obviously, some soccer. You watched Arsenal get their first loss, huh? I did watch Arsenal get their first loss. so this dating this podcast but I did watch that match it was very controversial was it? yeah there was a very controversial goal because they lost 1-0 and there was a controversial goal people are really mad at the VAR the video assistant referee we don't need to put the audience into their own nap going over this so Sean what'd you do?

1:31I did I took a little nap did you have some lunch before you nap? I had a BLT you did? yeah I had a BLT with extra mayo Your food is always so special. Do you ever just have like normal shit? What's not normal about a BLT? You have to make the bacon and put it on the side. No, no, no, no. He lives next to a Sonic. Do you live next to a Sonic?

1:55He always has to live within four miles of a Sonic. That's my contract. Hey, can I guess what kind of bread it was on? It was just white, regular white bread, country white. Will, have you ever bought a local? I was from the country. That sounds better. Will, have you ever bought a loaf of white bread? Sure. Really? Have you ever, what is it? Bought a loaf of white bread. Of course. What are you talking about? When you say I, I don't know if I have. Yeah, of course I have. And I will say that the little kids, the little kids, they like... White bread. But not, you know, they get a sort of, I don't know.

2:30It's children's food. That's all Sean eats. I eat white bread and drink milk almost every night. What did you guys have? Jason, you and Amanda went over for dinner the other night. What did we have? It was a lovely dinner. Beautiful roasted chicken and roasted vegetables and a salad. And then... I mean, we had to hear about it the whole time. Scott and Sean were fucking furious that that's what they had to eat because we were there. No, we knew you were coming over, so we made sure it was like, you know, Jason and Amanda food. And then for dessert, there was brownies. This is Jason and Amanda versus Sean and Scotty.

3:04We had the brownies. They had chocolate-covered dates. so listen true that's true well first of all you supplied them thinking we would enjoy them and but you didn't touch the brownie oh i sure did touched it big you did my mouth touched it i will i've seen jay you know sometimes like on a sunday night somebody will bring a usually you and scotty and somebody else will bring a dessert and i've seen jason uh over uh get over over shared i have addiction issues you know but but but um eli was asking me today about dinner i don't know anyway i said he asked me jason what you oh we were talking about atlanta and uh i was saying he's like well what did he order in a lot when he was living up there in that building where we ended up i said no no i'm asleep by 7 30.

3:57he'll have a little salad and some crackers. Well, dinner, yeah. True story. Really? I found his crackers. Listen, the body is no fluke. This body right here, it doesn't just happen. But last night at dinner, Jason, last night at dinner, we were at a restaurant. I'll have a McCarthy salad, no bacon. Dressing on the side. Dressing on the side and then something else. No egg or something? Nope. No? Just don't fucking mix it and give me the dressing. Which dressing did you ask for for that? I know the place. Yeah, it's just a balsamic vinaigrette thingy. Yeah, yeah. It's nice. It's real nice. And you don't want a heavy pour on the salad, you know?

4:34It just ruins all the vegetables. I know. I don't like a drinking salad dressing, yeah. Yeah, I don't think so. I doubt it. All right. You want to talk about somebody who knows what to do with themselves when it comes to taking care of themselves. I do want to. I got a guest for you. Hold on. Let me pull up my notes here. There's that, and here's this. Here we come. Ready? Quiet. Today we have someone who is equally successful in personal accomplishments as he is in teamwork. He is as rich as he is philanthropic. He is as famous as he is soft-spoken. this man was the first to have been voted mvp unanimously in nba history he has nine nba all star selections he has four nba championships and he was the first player to hit 103 pointers in the nba finals he is widely regarded as the greatest shooter in nba history he's not a bad golfer either and he's our guest today say hello to steph curry shut death yes hello Hello, gentlemen.

5:47Shut the front door. Is this a booking? Shut the side door. Shut the back door. Shut it down. I can't believe this. And I married a Canadian. Did you hear that? And you married a Canadian, and you spent a lot of time in Toronto. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Markham, to be exact. Steph, I'm very excited you're here today. Oh, me too. Thank you, fellas. It's great to be on. Oh, great to meet you, man. Yeah, really nice to meet you. Sean, you don't have to fake it, okay? I'll introduce myself later to Sean. Let's talk about that. It goes deeper. It resonates. I, of course, know who you are. And I'm very impressed with you and your life.

6:23Yeah, it's incredible. Now, are we recording this at 3 o 'clock because you had to play golf this morning? I wish. So I had a really great golf season, I guess, in the summer. I think I saw you out there on the links passing by your neck of the woods. But come October when we start our season, the golf clubs develop some cobble. It's pretty quick. You don't take them with you at all? I try to. I play maybe twice a month if I'm lucky. But we are in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio right now. Sure. In between three games and four nights. So as a 35-year-old in my 15th year, most of the time is dedicated to staying as youthful as possible.

7:08What's the big key on that for you? What do you try to avoid that gets you super-duper tired? BLTs. DLTs and white bread. Seriously, when I was laughing, when I was talking about Sean's lunch, I was like, I wish I could have had that. That's right. Right, Steph? Yeah. We know each other. Sean, show him your cookie pouch. This is what Steph's trying to avoid. It's the cookie pouch. There it is. But you know what? I bet when you're 53, when you're 53, you might have one. I might have one. Yeah, so watch out. Something to look forward to. Yeah. Did your dad ever get himself a cookie pouch after he stopped playing?

7:42He did. Really? And so he played 16 years in the NBA. He did? He did. He played, he got drafted in 86 by Utah, Cleveland, and he spent 10 years in Charlotte, which is where I grew up, my family. And then he ended up his last three years in Toronto, which is, I lived there for three years. I can't wait for my obvious question. Because if dad did it, does that mean you wanted to do it, or was it forced upon you? It was a little bit of both. It's kind of forced upon you just by, that's all you're in. you're in a gym all the time, you know, following him, and you develop a love for it. But I played other sports growing up, baseball, football, obviously golf too.

8:22So you loved it. You loved sports. I loved it. Yeah, I loved it. I got to see most of his career, which was cool, because I was born his third year in the league, and so he retired when I was 12. Sorry, when I was 13, when I was in Toronto. But when he retired, he definitely, working out was not a priority for a while. and then when I he got he got inspired when actually when I got married back in 2011 that was the that was the emphasis for him to get back in shape he didn't want to walk down the aisle with me right we didn't want the photo to be out there but you know what Steph let me ask you this how long would a guy last in the NBA if all he ate was salad and nuts you know what's crazy

9:09I'd say that guy I'm the smallest guy usually out there. I'd be able to back that guy down in the post if it was a salad and nut diet. You'd have a hard time finding them. Exactly. The vegan lifestyle is taking over the league slowly but surely. Honestly, I don't touch it. I don't know how they get their calories in. I know there's a science behind it, but one of my teammates, Chris Paul, now who's been vegan for about four years. I just, I'm fascinated by what he brings on the plane or at mealtime, you know, how he gets his nourishment. I'm just amazed. I just stare at him. I feel like I'm an awkward, like, you know, associate.

9:49I'm just staring at everything he eats, like, asking questions, like, how, how? Now, you mentioned all those sports that you played growing up. Are there any sports that you're not great at? Like, just terrible at? I've picked up a lacrosse stick once and just have no knack for figuring out how to do that. anything really soccer i guess you could say i don't have any flash going on but i'm athletic so i could get i could get by i think yeah right you could fake there's a lot of similarities to basketball and soccer with the movement and yeah about tennis ball movement how's your tennis game tennis is solid pickleball even stronger yeah cool see you know what actually we just had uh we had our buddy john mackner on the podcast not long ago and we talked about the idea of kids when they're young he was he's such a big proponent of kids should not just play one sport he's like you should play multiple sports that's really important and it sounds like you did that i prescribed to that for sure there's so many you know crossover skill sets and you know personalities that you interact with uh the demands on your body your mind especially for you know younger kids to kind of get exposed to be able to figure out like what comes naturally what doesn't and how can you kind to close that gap so yeah i didn't pick basketball until i was 13 as my only sport um and even then i would still play golf on the side and had some other curiosities but that was when it came solely focused wow that's cool i played basketball in um before high school in great school i need some footage i need to see yeah i've heard you talk about the different sport experiences i need some I remember the coach saying, give it to Hayes because I never got the ball.

11:33And give it to Hayes. He was screaming, give it to Hayes. And I would run down and all the teammates would separate. Just give me one shot like every ten games. Bless him. You got a participation trophy for sure. It's like one of those videos you see where they do that, where they get like the towel kid and they bring him in and they let him.

11:59it's true it's true hey so steph were there any any significant challenges right at the beginning uh to playing basketball probably not right i mean you learned early get get your shooting technique i'm sure your dad like helped you was there like your height you you weren't you weren't small you were kept getting bigger and what do you what'd you top out at how tall are you I'm 6 '3 right now, but I was 5 '7 and about 145 pounds my freshman year in high school. Wow. Oh, wow. There's a picture of me and my varsity team, like, sitting up front, you know, cross-legged, and you're just like, who?

12:40You could have, how we just described Sean playing basketball, you probably, if you didn't know who I was, you look at the picture, you're like, oh, that's that kid. So then was your dad starting to condition you for, like, it's probably not going to happen for you? we'll see how tall you get but if you don't get to x start thinking about other things yeah that was i mean to the other question about was it forced on me that was i'm so grateful for how they my parents approached introducing me to the game because obviously you have a dad that played 16 years i kind of understand how basketball is in his future but the physicality deficiencies i had early and you know there was always just an encouragement to to just work figure it out build confidence as you go without really thinking about what the results were like obviously i knew what the nba was i knew what division one basketball was i knew that that was a good way to try to get a scholarship to a good school but um everything that they taught me and the coaches that i had kept me really in the moment which is something i try to teach kids now because there's such a pressure on it don't sports aside it doesn't matter what you're talking about there's such a pressure to you know fast forward the process and the journey of how you get there because you see the polished product you know you know forced on you every time you open up your phone and so me shooting you know threes in the finals and you know overcoming all the adversity that I had in my career it's all just that snapshot but if you fat if you you know rewind the clock back and you talked to me when I was a sophomore in high school the NBA was such a distant you know idea uh I was just enjoying playing basketball and being in that environment but but was it what but was it really I mean considering you know your your lineage right I mean, your father, like, I would imagine you had all the added pressure of, if I am lucky enough to get in, am I going to be as good?

14:27And, like, how did you deal with that? Because you over-indexed there. But not only that, Jason, think about this, too. Like, did you have the thing where you had, you must have known you had good hand-eye coordination. You played golf. You played a lot of different sports. You knew that you were athletic. and so you must have had an inkling that like, hey, if I can bring this stuff together, if I can land this plane, I'm going to do something outside of the pressure. But if you don't, that's going to be embarrassing for you, for them. How did you deal with all that? Yeah, it's a nice balance.

15:03And my parents, I guess inherently, they both embodied it on the daily. My dad played 16 years. My mom was a founder of a Montessori school that I went to in elementary school. So it was kind of like a good balance of, like, priorities. So if I start talking about, like, I missed my first middle school game because I didn't do the dishes. That was part of my chores. This was like a written. That was like my house. So, like, the strictness that came with, you know, the priorities. Like, obviously, you had to make sure you had good grades. Make sure that you took care of yourself in the classroom.

15:37Took care of your family and things at home. and then sports was down the way. They didn't let us slide on any of that. So I think it gave us a perspective of, you know, sports is fun and this is something that is in our family. It's in our blood. Yeah. But there was always perspective. But to the point of, yeah, I knew I was talented and gifted in certain areas, but it didn't really match up to the feedback I was getting from, you know, coaches and recruiters, especially when I got to high school because, you know, I grew up in Charlotte. My dad played 10, 11 of his 16 years there. So Del Curry's son in Charlotte, like people know who you are.

16:15So there is that added pressure. Anytime you step foot in the gym, they have an expectation of who you're supposed to be. But I didn't really have to, that wasn't the conversation at home. So I kind of could get away from it, if that makes sense. It was nice. It's a nice, healthy balance there. Were you playing, did you play at school? You obviously went to school in Toronto or in Martin too? Yeah, Queensway Christian College. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was in Etobicoke, Ontario. I know Etobicoke well. You know who's from Etobicoke? It's Shani, Brendan Shanahan, who's a friend of ours who runs the Toronto Maple Leafs.

16:50Friend of the program, friend of mine. I'm kind of a mentor to him. And that's me. I just give him a lot of guidance with the team. He goes on and on about it. It's crazy. Now, Steph, what's your feeling on this? You know, I was at the Laker game the other night, and, you know, they do a great job there for the crowd and everything. with the music and all this stuff, but... They'll be happy to hear that you approve. I realize, well, I'm saying something nice before I say something shitty. You know, they got music going every single time the Lakers take the ball down the court. And I started thinking, well, I wonder if the Lakers are pissed off about this.

17:25They're hearing this distracting. It's basically they're scoring this movie, you know, with music. That's a new thing, isn't it? Didn't it used to be kind of like quiet and then they play music if something good happens? now how do you hear each other this is a part of our experience we hear it but it doesn't really bother affect us Kobe Bryant used to say um I guess there was a conversation he had where he talked about him working out in the summer he used to have it dead silent because that's what he wanted to impart on like the home crowd right that was like the feeling he wanted I wanted dead silence in here so I'm going to work out that way I'm not that maniacal in terms of like you know process but when you're out there in the court you hear the the the music the atmosphere you hear the fans chanting at you all that type of stuff the funny part is i've been a part of one unique game in new york uh madison square garden i think it was 2017 they tried like the old school method where there was just there was no pa announcer there was no in arena uh music at all no atmosphere was just the crowd noise.

18:31It was like taking it back to the 1940s, 50s, whatever. Yeah. It was the worst experience ever. Oh, really? Yeah, of course. Like you just hear the shoes squeaking. You can't really feel momentum. People clearing their voices and dropping cups and stuff. They abandoned it at halftime. They said, oh, this is not working. Let's go back to that. That's terrible. At halftime. Everybody was complaining. So, Steph, you know how in golf there's like, there's a thing called swing thoughts, right? We have like this one thing you think about and it gets your whole swing all in a groove, right? Like just like tuck the right elbow in or right finger on the shoulder, whatever the hell it is.

19:06Do you have a swing thought that has consistently worked for you in shooting the basketball? Like do you think back of the rim or front of the rim or bottom of the net that puts it in a certain arc that you can count on that has worked for you over the years? Yeah, I think the biggest, it's a thought and a feeling all at the same time, But if I'm in balance, and that can mean a lot of different things. I can be moving, you know, right, left, forward, backward, one foot, right, two feet, whatever it is. But there's a feeling of balance that, you know, no matter how many times I've been in the gym shooting any type of shot or envision, you know, a game kind of unfolding with your mental process and all that.

19:48Like, I can feel when I'm in balance. And when I'm in balance, I feel like I'm never going to miss. Wow. And so you don't think too hard about it. No, you try to keep it really simple. The muscle memory and mechanics take over. But all I'm thinking about right before I shoot is can I get into proper balance? And then from there. It is something I noticed so clearly about you. It's such a unique quality of yours that you always seem to be so at ease and graceful and calm with everything that you do. Yes, you're explosive and you're fast when you need to. But for the most part, what I sort of take away is that there's just a calmness and an ease to everything that you do that I bet every player wish they had.

20:31Well, I'll add to that. I had the same thing because sometimes, yeah, watching you in so many different situations, and obviously you're a competitor and you see guys get, some guys get really heated, whatever. You stay very calm. You seem very present in the moment. is that something that you work on oh for sure that's what he was like what if he was like what's the question coming out the joy that's where the joy comes from so he's like there's a calmness to it but i'm i'm i'm a little kid out there on the court even you know 15 years and i if i if i ever lose that then i know it'll be time to time to quit because yeah uh that presence and the mindfulness of what's happening right now and literally i get lost in the game so uh it the the work or the business of basketball creeps in from time to time because there's so much that that goes on in terms of putting a team together and the ups and downs of an 82 game schedule or the pressures of performing every single night but honestly when i step foot on the floor it's it's just pure joy and that's where i i live wow we'll be right back all right back to the show my two my two questions that i have to ask is one at a time please i was no i was waiting for the two the two-parter because i know i know how this goes it goes oh yeah because i gotta get them in i gotta get these in worst fight you've ever had on the court and worst injury oh great question has anyone ever gotten a beat down from you no i've I've gotten a beat down.

22:09It was in, I think it's on YouTube still. It was in Indiana in 2013. Roy Hibbert, David West. Oh, yeah. And my teammate at the time, David Lee. Roy Hibbert and David Lee kind of squared up underneath the basket. And it was like big man on big man crime. Guards and little guys stay out the way. Like that's kind of a known thing in the league when the big guys are going at it. like there's everything else around doesn't matter my dumb ass wanted to get in there and you know protect my teammates so they square up they chest bump and i run up behind roy hibbert he's seven foot probably 290 280 pounds and i try to grab him from the back and like pull him off my teammate and when i tell you it was like flop you know swatting a fly off he literally just took his left hand and just and i went it was literally under the basket i flew all the way to the corner like feet off, slid across the court.

23:07So now I'm embarrassed. So I have to like get up and act like I'm coming back for more. And that's when David West, who's like the big punisher, the enforcer on the court, he like kind of chest, you know, stiff arms me and puts me in my place and like just holds me one hand. And there's all this commotion going on. And later the story is, I would have gone for it. He just held me back. I was going to go for it. By the way, Roy Hibbert, nice guy. Very nice guy. got a mean got a mean left left swim he's got a mean he's got a left swat he calls it he's got a mean i never knew how strong will was until we were doing that and i i had no idea taking my shirt off dude no but really like he's it's so he's so unassuming i tried to push him with all of my body weight i couldn't push him an inch yeah it's it's annoying anyway yeah i will ask you this do you do do you apply that same kind of uh approach and you talk about the balance and being present when you do other sport like when you play golf or do you have because some people and i'm not going to name names some people when they stand over the ball they stand there like a psycho and they might be up to 30 seconds like a freaking psycho like you think this guy i'm glad he's here over the ball because otherwise he's going to be out you know my checklist is much shorter now it is i heard you i heard you're working on it right this is a process he is working on his process you've heard about the process yeah i've heard about the process so would you would you say but do you do you do that or do you just you like just swing athletically and just do it the athletic tendencies take over i am as maniacal about the game of golf uh as jason is just in terms of like i know there's always something to work on and get better and there's i'm creative in that mindset where you know every little detail kind of matters and I have to really try to turn all those thoughts off because they will get the best of you.

25:00Especially, I've been playing, I mean, selfishly been playing the best golf of my life, and so it's like, how good can I really get? Dude, this summer you were on fire. You're a scratch, aren't you? I got to the other side of that. I'm like a plus two right now, which is insane. And how old are you? You're 35. 35. Okay, so you have 15 years before the Champions Tour, if you want it. If you want it. So 15 more years of training. you could you could be unstoppable on the champions tour if you want to do that at 50 right you can make the decision that is that is a goal for sure i i know there's uh in the golf world there's a lot of you know our celebrity and pro-am stuff and so you can scratch the competitive itch here and there especially when i get the nine months of my basketball season back when it's all said and done um but uh yeah champions tour i mean i'm sick like basketball could be on i might have that on my phone but on tv it's golf channel yeah you and me both it's just a problem my wife thinks i'm such an idiot well you know that the other night a lot of apologies jason was over and i showed him my golf channel which was this old house on pbs i still watch this old house do you know you know that show i do not oh it's like uh it's like from the 1970s it's still on and they they do they build homes they build houses yeah it's it's it's really you know who likes it?

26:21People who are in comas. They play it just to have so that they know that there's... Or people that just can't... They'll roll a TV into a room if somebody's in a coma. And they can't find the remote control. Those are the folks that love that. Yeah, or if the remote is broken, it's on the phone. Or they're strapped to a chair and it's stuck on PBS. Yeah, it's the best show this old house. I sent Jason a video this morning. Jason's game has gotten so good and mine is... I haven't been playing as much, but his game's... You're not a plus, but your game's good. I sent him this video today of this dude who played 18 holes with a five iron this morning and all he wanted to do was break 80 and he shot what he shoots 76 he yeah he shot 78 yeah what with a five iron yeah he plays on the he plays on the dp tour european guy he did that tells you how good those guys yeah two bunk he's hit two greenside bunker shots flop shots with a five iron dude yeah it was good crazy we'll send it to you um talk to me about you and clay thompson the splash brothers how did you develop the the the chemistry with him is that is that you know when anyone's ever asked me about chemistry with with an actor or something like that that it i always say well it's not something you want it's just that person's just nice it's just it's easy if someone's not a prick you can get along with them and you have chemistry immediately yeah is that is that as simple as it is with you and clay transferable to this to our relationship for sure like we uh been together on the court now for 12 years uh And then you add Draymond Green to that for 11.

27:50So it's insane to think that two guys who had dads that played in the NBA as well. That's what I was going to say. And like you said, have a good perspective about what we worked for to get here and approach life very similarly with appreciation and gratitude that we kind of hit it off from the jump. And I don't know, like when you get into these type of friendships and from your standpoint with your people in the same profession, comics, whatever, actors, that you kind of sharpen each other's skill sets just by being around each other. Yeah, for sure. And that's how we've been this entire time.

28:28It's not something that we actually really talk about. It's like we don't come in and sit down at dinner. What percentage are you trying to shoot this year? Is your elbow at 90 degrees? But it's more just when you're in that environment, our work ethics are pretty you know top-notch in terms of you know being out able to try to figure out how to get better every single year and that iron sharpens iron is real and there's such a respect level for the way that he approaches basketball and life and that's why we're still doing it and i'll bet the two of you with with that kind of harmony and kindness and quiet leadership and all that stuff it's infectious in the team correct like you guys i bet have created a culture over there that it should be no surprise that you guys have won that extra 10 to 15 games each year whatever it takes to to get to a place where you're in the finals and once you're in the finals like that kind of harmony in a team environment really yields the the extra thing that you need to be excellent as opposed to great yes no for sure the culture part of a lot of different ways to lead, right?

29:37There's a lot of different ways. You can be the loud one that needs to say something about everything. You can be the lead by example type. You can be the ones that show up when the lights are brightest and galvanize that confidence within the team. But following kind of Steve Kerr, our coach, and the legendary coaches that he played for, Phil Jackson, Greg Popovich, played alongside Michael Jordan. But Kerr has been famously a really, really nice guy. Yeah, he's just a great manager of people, like an impersonable guy. He seems to have a very sort of similar disposition. Obviously very different personality, but different disposition to Greg Popovich, both of whom I don't know at all.

30:16But it just seems like they have a very similar kind of vibe. Is that right? They're straight shooters. They have a great sense of humor. Yeah. They have a perspective that, you know, our problems in the NBA, they're real. Like we're trying to win at the highest level. There's pressure. This is a multi-billion dollar industry that is set up to test you in all different ways. And if you want to win at the highest level, it's going to demand a lot from you. But, you know, he has a great way of kind of explaining, like, we're blessed, man. We get to play basketball for a living. And he reminds us of that every single day when we come in.

30:55And that kind of just levels the playing field. There's a level of trust within each other. And he does the best job of when you come into a team kind of element, I don't care if it's sports, it's whatever facet of life, like everybody has a specific role to play, and he makes sure that that's clear, but it doesn't diminish your value to the success of the group. And I think he has a great way of managing that process of, you know, from day one to the end. That's cool. Making guys believe in that to, you know, that's why we've been able to sustain this level of success for as long as we have. But what do you guys do season to season?

31:29I've often wondered, like, you come in, you win a few championships, and so you're the best. You guys are the best. You've got an unbelievable team. You've got great chemistry. What does a guy like Steve Kerr say when you come into camp, whatever that is, August, September, to get ready for the new season? Do guys like him go, okay, well, we won last year. This year our approach is going to be – because obviously the goal – like, if he sat there and goes, we want to win a championship. Like, yeah, no shit. That's why everybody wants to win the championship. Do they set different goals? They go, this is what we're going to do this year.