Daniel Bard remembers going to high school with Steph Curry
Steph Curry was the wide-eyed fan, looking up to the fellow Charlotte Christian High alum who had made it big.
So when Curry and his buddies stood watching batting practice at Fenway Park back in 2011 as part of the basketball star's bachelor party, there was one meeting he wanted to have.
A conversation with then-Red Sox pitcher Daniel Bard was a must.
"We were taking batting practice and I was coming off the field after we shagged or hit or whatever. Somebody was like, ‘Steph Curry wants to talk to you.’ Again, I knew who he was but he wasn’t the best player in the NBA like he is now. So I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.’ So I went over there and he was behind the roped-off area with a bunch of kids from our high school that were all his good friends," Bard remembered while appearing on the Bradfo Sho podcast.
"I talked to him for a while that day. I did not know he was a huge baseball fan."
Curry was, in fact, a Red Sox fan, having gone out of his way to counter his brother's Yankees fandom. It's what helped prioritize the place for the current Golden State star's pre-wedding celebration. And the presence of Bard - who was a senior when Curry was freshman - didn't hurt, either.
"I guess I didn’t realize it at the time. Just being older, he probably looked up to me as a guy who had been pro athlete," Bard said. "I just looked at him as one of my brother’s friends who was really good at basketball at the time. And now he is who he is."
Curry's day at Fenway included personalized t-shirts for all of his buddies, including one that donned the "White Lobster" moniker for his college roommate - and former Falmouth (Maine) star - Bryant Barr.
It was a late May day that brought back a lot of memories for Curry, including one Dodge Ball-induced moment that left a mark.
“His senior year was my freshman year,” Curry told the Boston Herald that day on the Fenway field. “I always joke that I knew he had an arm, I knew he had promise, I knew he was going to make the big leagues because we had a pep rally that year and there was a dodgeball tournament between each grade.
"I was across the line from him throwing that heater. He smacked me right in my chest. That’s when I knew he was going to make it."
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