As someone who has played many a game of driveway basketball with my older brother, I know just how much rage that the younger sibling can generate over fairly trivial happenings during a little one-on-one action. Some call it petty... I'd call it typical sibling competitiveness.
Of course, when Steph and Seth Curry square off on the NBA hardwood now, nothing that happens is trivial. It's their career, it's happening in front of millions of viewers and it affects all of their teammates and coaches. The stakes are raised, and that's what makes it so incredible to watch two brothers facing off at the highest possible level of competition.
Related
But their battles weren't always so serious. Yes, even they were just driveway basketball hoopers at some point, wearing their dad's jerseys and pretending they were pros. The elder Curry, Steph, spoke about some of their battles as they grew up together on "The Rex Chapman Show with Josh Hopkins."
"Oh, at least 15," Steph said when asked how many legitimate fights he and Seth got into at the Curry household. "Seth had this thing where we'd play one-on-one, and obviously I'm the big brother, I'm supposed to win. He'd get me every once in a while.
"But he had this thing where he called a foul and I'm like, 'no, that's not a foul, I literally didn't touch you,' and I wouldn't give him the foul. He'd literally take the ball and just walk off the court, but he knew all I wanted to do was play, and he knew I wasn't gonna just let him walk off, so he'd play that card every single time.
"...It's a trump card every single time, but I just wanted to hoop. But he knew I wanted to hoop, and he wanted to hoop... the game within the game still exists, even to last night (this must have been recorded the day after their game), so I love it."
That's a good tactic — I know from experience. But it's something that you can't quite whip out during an NBA game when officials are there, although the Curry brothers' most recent interaction may have left Seth wishing he had that trick up his sleeve. Why? Because big bro dropped a casual 49 on little bro and his 76ers, with a couple of one-on-one moments thrown in for good measure.
The Warriors and the 76ers won't meet again this season, unless the Sixers continue their first-place pace to win the East and the Warriors somehow beat a whole bunch of teams with better records than them and emerge as the ultimate Finals dark horse. And for that to happen, Steph Curry might have to go on some sort of insane, inconceivable stretch where he averages, I don't know, more than 40 points per game across 10 contests. And we all know that could never be the case.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram