"I Can Do All Things..."
To start, here’s a brief history lesson.
This phrase actually comes from a first-century letter written by a dude named Paul to people in a city called, Philippi, which is in modern day Greece. This not only just an ordinary historical letter, but it is also one of the books in the New Testament of the Bible called, Philippians. This particular phrase, “I can do all things” comes from the fourth chapter, verse 13 in the book Philippians. The dude named Paul wrote this to encourage people at Philippi that they can overcome their hardships and troubles in their lives through Jesus Christ. So, you might be wondering what does this have to do with Steph Curry?
Steph Curry shares that same encouragement while he plays and reminds him of his NBA journey. Although his father was a former NBA player, Steph Curry’s NBA journey was not very easy. As a kid, he was very small and skinny who could not shot the ball properly because of his size. As a result, he was often over looked at in every level of basketball competition he was in. Early on, one of his greatest challenges for him was to change his shooting form after his sophomore year in high school. There was times during that process where Curry could not even shoot the ball which greatly discouraged him. But as his junior season came around, Curry’s new and improved shooting form brought his game into new heights where he was named all-state and all-conference his last two years in high school.
Even with all the success in high school, no major Division I conference schools offered him a basketball scholarship, sighting that he still was too small to be a major player in an elite Division I basketball program. Curry would prove them wrong by going to small Division I school called, Davidson, and taking them all the way to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament his sophomore year. By his junior season, Curry became the leading scorer in all of college basketball and decided to declare for the 2009 NBA Draft.
As he prepared for the NBA draft, many people still viewed him as a player that was too small to be huge factor as he was in college. Again, Curry had doubters. Curry was selected by the Golden State Warriors with the seventh overall pick and was the runner up for the Rookie of the Year that season. He would also enjoy success in his next season, becoming one of the best shooters in the NBA. Everything seem like it was going right for Curry, but that following summer he would need surgery to repair his ankle due to multiple ankle sprains sustained during the previous season. As Curry recovered the following season, he re-injured his ankle and had to deal with injuries for the rest of the season. As a person who had gone through ankle surgery and rehab myself, re-injuring yourself is real discouraging, but Curry pushed on the next season to lead his team to the 2013 NBA playoffs, with a first round upset of the Denver Nuggets.
Throughout Steph Curry’s life, there were trials and triumphs, but each trial he faced he overcame it. As Curry and his Golden State Warriors are heading to the NBA Finals tonight for the first time in 40 years, we can all point at his success through overcoming his trials, but I think Curry would just simply quote that verse written by that dude named Paul centuries ago, “I can do all things…through Christ who strengthens me!” (Philippians 4:13)
Let the NBA Finals begin!
