Stephen Curry buzzer-beater influenced by Otto Porter & Kerr
[First 8 paragraphs are free]
Just spent the better part of the morning compiling multiple angles of Stephen Curry’s walk-off buzzer-beater for our usual behind-the-scenes video on YouTube, which is clickable above.
A 21-second clip was provided on-the-scene by our very own Jeffry Chen, fellow YouTube live commentator, who I mentioned before is visiting from Australia. And boy, did that make a difference because his view from the second deck at Chase Center actually revealed something about the play that courtside and TV angles weren’t able to show — more on this for paid subscribers only, below the paywall demarcation line 👇 and here’s a button in case you want to find out:
But first, notes from the behind-the-scenes video:
The Golden State Warriors didn’t practice the day before the Indiana Pacers game, but looks like they all came in for a little tennis-ball baseball action on the main court, in which Steve Kerr said in the Houston Rockets pregame was a talent display by Steph, Klay Thompson and Mychel Thompson, Klay’s brother who now serves as a basketball trainer for the Warriors. But two things in the baseball clip provided by Warriors TV jumped out at me: Gary Payton II’s dexterity — thereby giving another meaning to his nickname “Young Glove” — as he caught Klay’s deep fly ball into the stands (a blast off of Nemanja Bjelica’s pitch btw), and Andrew Wiggins giving Damion Lee a disgusted look as a pitch seemingly went way out of his strike zone. It’s always a good sight to see Wiggins blending in with the guys, which also makes the lame “trade Wiggs” knee-jerk reactions on social media even more preposterous because as time passes by, Andrew becomes more and more intertwined within the GSW culture, something that you’d think would take around as long (at least one or two seasons) for any proposed traded player to get acclimated into.
Wiggs’ new Peak Attitude shoes look strikingly similar to the Kobes that he was wearing, including the taped-over part. As in, the Peaks also look like they have some logo taped over. Clever!
Yesterday actually started with a medallion unveiling for the retired Rick Welts. Among the former Warriors in attendance: Tom Meschery, Al Attles, Rick Barry, Chris Mullin and Zaza Pachulia. Lucky autograph seekers were able to corral Mullin.
Inside Chase, Barry dapped up Steph and Klay in the pregame, interrupting his own on-court interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. I would’ve done the same. Curry also modified his finishing corner three routine with a super-creative under-handed toss to honor Barry’s presence. After a few tries, Steph made it, which to me is an amazing feat. No word on if Curry ditched the “balcony shot” as he did before the Indy game.
Andre Iguodala bull-dozing past Raymond Ridder in 2014 after Iguodala’s walk-off at Atlanta was fun to see, so be sure to check that in the video above. It was also funny to see the entire team follow him off. Makes you wonder if NBC Sports Bay Area got anybody for the on-court interview that night. I’ll have to remember to ask Bob Fitzgerald or Jim Barnett next time I see them.
The walk-off buzzer-beater by Steph was heavily influenced by Kerr’s play call and Otto Porter’s strategic inbound. Read on about this below the paywall demarcation line 👇