Padecky: Warriors' Stephen Curry is changing the game

Sports are never played in a vacuum. Nothing goes unnoticed. Everything is attached to an opinion. It is the genius of the industry, the microscope never dimming, judgment always at the ready. Nowhere is this drill practiced with more fervor than any analysis of Stephen Curry.

“I didn't think he'd make it in the NBA,” said Pat Fuscaldo, who just finished his 22nd year as the men's coach of Sonoma State's basketball team. “I saw (Davidson's) Curry play at St. Mary's and I thought he was too small, that he wasn't strong enough.”

Too small and too light and too slow has given way in seven years to too unreal. Curry has now done what once was thought impossible: His ability to shoot and make it from any area code has reduced the size of the basketball court. Halfcourt now looks like the 3-point arc when Curry has the ball. Because a sport is never played in a vacuum, Curry's influence extends way beyond the NBA. It extends to every state, every hamlet, every driveway that has a hoop.

“The 3-point shot is being utilized more and more recently,” said Craig McMillan, the Santa Rosa JC men's coach whose Bear Cubs won the 2014 state junior college championship. “And Curry is the reason for that. He defies logic. He's an anomaly. He's a freak of nature.”

And the freak has created - not his intent - a stampede to the 3-point line.

“I've coached against guys who believe you must shoot 35 threes in a game,” Fuscaldo said. “They come into the gym and right away they start jacking it up. It's fool's gold. It's like when I was a kid in New York. Everyone wanted to be Mickey Mantle. Now everyone wants to be Steph.”

The 3-point shot is basketball's version of baseball's home run. Played at a frenetic pace with darting movement, the game stops as everyone stands and watches the arc, the hang-time. At that point strategy is suspended. And when it's that 38-footer Curry shot to beat the Thunder last week, Curry turns everyone into a fan, gawking and gasping. As odd as this reads, there's a downside to that.

“It's like watching an AAU game now,” Fuscaldo said. “Kids want to shoot and shoot but the rest of the fundamentals are nonexistent. ‘Playing the game' is lost. And the coach will take credit because he developed a great player. That's the mentality in AAU. It's not the taking of the three that's wrong. It's the making of the three that's the difference.”

And that's when we return to Curry, who makes it look easy, like a Mantle or a Jordan, and that's the greatest illusion of them, and disrespect to his craft. To penetrate that illusion Fuscaldo uses as his example his wife, Molly Goodenbour, the former Stanford All-American and key member of two Stanford national championship teams.

“When we were dating,” Fuscaldo said, “I'd rebound for Molly in her workouts. So after her strength and conditioning drills, after all the dribbling, Molly had to make 300 shots before we could go home. I never saw anything like it. But Molly wanted to be great and she was, but it was her workouts and her commitment that made it happen.”

That's the point both Fuscaldo and McMillan stress. Commitment influences a player more than natural ability. Curry is the first to agree and has a video to prove it. While he is playing in a darkened gym, Curry is reading an NBA scouting report in 2009. It's hilarious but also enlightening.

“His explosiveness and athleticism are below standard. … He is not a great finisher around the basket. … He needs to improve considerably as a ball handler. … He struggles against physical defenders. … He will have limited success at the next level.”

And the last sentence is a doozy. “Do not rely on him to run your team.”

Wish Curry could have at least identified the team. What we see in 2016 bears faint resemblance to what that scout saw in 2009. A Molly Goodenbour workout brought him this far. And basketball lovers everywhere thank him for it.

“Before the 3-pointer,” McMillan said, “the offenses would throw it inside and pack it in there. It was kind of an ugly game. The three opened up offenses. Now I've seen teams take too many threes. They are low percentage shots. They are not good shots for them but they are good shots for Curry and Klay Thompson.”

The last time a player affected the path of the NBA like Curry has was in the 1970s when Julius Erving showed everyone the thrill of playing above the rim. Michael Jordan developed it even further. Magic Johnson? The best at running the floor but that has been done before and since.

Curry, this is different. The 3-point shot has been around for almost 40 years but it had its limits. Shooters hugged the arc like it was a life preserver. Go beyond it? Go 10 feet beyond it? Why? The 23 feet, 9 inches was far enough away as it is.

Ah, but not when Curry shoots. So why not a 4-point shot from 40 feet? Why not? Curry can do it. OK, maybe he's the only one who can do it now. But that's his genius. Curry shows it can be done, just as Julius showed us the possibilities of high flight, as Bill Russell showed us the value of defense.

McMillan didn't laugh off the 4-point shot.

“Maybe 20-30 years from now,” McMillan said.

Maybe sooner. We can blame Curry for that. The basketball court doesn't seem to be as big as it once was. He has reduced the size of the court. If he keeps this up our wonder will reduce as well. We'll be ready for something else, someone else. Someone who can shoot it better than Steph Curry. My oh my, that we all can live to see that day.

To contact Bob Padecky email him at bobpadecky@gmail.com.