Stephen Curry on His Book Shot Ready and Getting Elbowed by Kobe Bryant on the Court (Extended)

Good to see you, bud.

Great to see you, too. Uh, shot ready? We got to talk about this book. It's fantastic. Uh, I haven't seen you since you won a gold medal in Paris.

I know.

Yeah, for USA. Congratulations.

About a year ago.

You won the gold medal.

Thank you.

You were unbelievable. You were on fire. Uh, you scored a giant 3-pointer, and after you did it— here, I have a picture of it right here. You pointed—

What did I do?

No, you pointed, Point that at me. That's me sitting right there. And I'm so excited. I actually happened to be taking a video at this exact moment when this happened.

You have it?

Yeah, take a look at this.

Oh my God.

This is real. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Curry!

Yeah!

Yeah, dude! Now, my big question.

That's so good. I hadn't seen that before.

My big question is, were you pointing at me?

This is your show. This is your house. I'm going to let you have this one.

Thank you.

You're the best. But there may have been somebody behind you.

OK. All right, all right.

I'll take that.

But then— I plead the Fifth.

Thank you. But then also, at the end of the game, you did the night-night celebration. You just crushed it with another 3-pointer. There you are doing the night-night celebration where you— Yeah, like go to bed, go to sleep. But then over here—

Look, scrolling on you.

Ah!

I'm doing it with you. I'm doing it because I'm a big fan. I'm doing it with you, man. Yeah.

You were locked in. I will say though, I will say you had great energy the whole time.

I did?

The whole time. I mean, obviously it was Carmelo. It was a bunch of other—

By the way, Carmelo was great too because honestly, when the game ended, a lot of you guys came over and hugged Carmelo.

Oh, for sure. He was like our third coach over there. He was yelling plays and telling us what to do.

Really?

He's Mr. USA. He's played in so many Olympics. So it was nice to have his presence. But you helped as well.

Yeah, yeah. You're very nice. Uh, you're a 4-time NBA champion, 2-time MVP, uh, Finals MVP. What does it mean to add gold medalist to the résumé?

It is, uh, one, obviously, representing your country. There's nothing like it. Um, to have waited that long, 16 years, to then finally play in my first Olympics. Um, and then the way that it ended. Like, you can't draw up a better storybook ending.

It was unbelievable.

With those other, you know, all 12 of us getting it done in Paris against France.

No, trust me, it was—

I can't say. It was special. It was insane. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna take it.

'Cause I was watching you, obviously, you were walking out of the car. I was like just watching everybody. I'm like, "Oh, this is such a moment." Like everyone was like, you could feel it.

For sure. It was the first time, like everybody's a fan of their own NBA team, right?

Yeah, of course.

But the first time you got all, every market, every, you know, background coming and saying, "Oh, we love this team and we want this team to win." And I kind of felt that energy.

Yeah.

Obviously, so it was— That's amazing. You're an amazing basketball player, but you're also an amazing golfer too. I've gotten to see, you're unbelievable.

You've done something—

I try. That not many people have accomplished. You got a hole-in-one.

I did.

And it was caught on camera. That was really cool. During the American Century Championship. Can you believe it's on camera?

No.

I mean, this is—

In a tournament, like, with that many people watching, it was special.

Yeah. What did it— 'cause you ran up and down the hole. What's a better feeling, a hole-in-one or making a game-winning shot?

Well, making a game-winning shot, that's what I get paid to do.

I'm supposed to do that. Yeah, you're supposed to do that. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. A hole-in-one, like, you can't make that happen. Obviously maybe a little bit of skill, mostly luck. So I celebrated as if I hadn't— I blacked out, basically. I was airplane-ing down there.

I saw you airplane-ing. Yeah, you were going like this down there. It was so fun.

My playing partner who was with me, he had to hit after me, but I ran all the way to the green. He chased me halfway down the fairway. He didn't know what to do. He's like, wait, I have to go all the way back and hit?

Exactly. There's been some talk that you would maybe consider actually joining the Senior PGA Tour. Went after your NBA career?

I'm competitive golf-wise, but after watching what I just watched, I need to go join the Savannah Bananas.

Are they unbelievable? That was unbelievable.

That was unbelievable, right? That was unbelievable.

No, I'm just saying, I don't know. Are we going back? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

All right, all right, cool.

Uh, you were statistically the greatest 3-point shooter of all time, but last season, you did— Yeah, absolutely.

Wow.

Of all time.

Crazy.

Uh, but last season, you did something that you hadn't done in 6 years. 6 years, you dunked during the game.

You know when you get recognized for dunk— like, I'm 6'3". I should be able to get up there a little bit. But this is a funny game. This is in Philadelphia. One of our assistant coaches, Jerry Stackhouse, in practice the day of or the morning of that game, he's like, "I've been here all year. I haven't seen you dunk not one time." No. And I was like, "Oh, that's not what I—" 3's better than 2. Like, I'd rather do that.

Yeah, you're right. You're right.

But then that night, that night I get a dunk opportunity. So after I dunked it, I actually pointed at him. He was up on the bench. Jumping up and down. It was—

When do you know that you're gonna go up and dunk it? Like, are you— do you— will you get, like—

There's no— there's no planning for me. Like, it was the spur of the moment, just try it. And it took everything I had out of me. I'm probably still feeling it right now.

No way!

I'm still— I'm still feeling it.

I think what you should do is, at the All-Star Game, you do the 3-point contest and the dunk contest.

You know—

If you could win both of those, that's another thing, another feather in your cap. Would you do that?

I've been successful at choosing what I'm good at, so—

Yeah, so I should just keep my mouth shut. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to talk about your new book, by the way, Shot Ready. Stephen Curry, congratulations on this.

Thank you very much.

Man, you don't even have to even be a basketball fan to love this book, 'cause it's just even about more way of life, and it's part memoir, part philosophy. Like, can you explain the meaning of Shot Ready?

Yeah, me and Shot Ready, this is a kind of a culmination of images from throughout the, you know, my journey on and off the court, mixed with, like you said, philosophy, wisdom that's been instilled in me and things that I've learned through the ups and downs in life, not just the successes, the failures as well and what it's taught me. And so hopefully the images kind of bring you into a moment that also is attached to a lesson. And to your point, being shot ready means the work ethic, the process, the self-confidence that you're ready for whatever comes your way. That's what we do on the basketball court. You're shot ready. You're not results-based. But if I'm ready to catch that ball, lock in on my target, for me that's been the whole thing that's driven me this entire way. Stephen Curry. Like, again, if I fail, I'm coming right back. If I succeed, I learned something about it. So hopefully, you know, the stories and the pictures in there can inspire anybody.

Uh, I-I loved it. I had— there's so many things I want to underline and just memorize. I'm like, "That's so good." Uh, uh, just about just being ready and being there. So much work and practice goes into all this stuff. When you play, do you even feel like you're playing basketball, or are you in a zone, or—

You're in a flow state, but it, like— you know, working out this afternoon, it was all about, like, envisioning what could happen down the road and the preparation that's going into it. But when I'm out there on the court, like, there's not much thought. Like, obviously, there's not a lot of thought, 'cause I'm pointing at Jimmy Fallon during the middle of the game.

Come on, bud.

But—

Sorry, I appreciate that. You don't ever have to do it again. I'm so happy. I'm set for the rest of my life.

But I'm having fun out there.

Yeah.

The joy and the gratitude and appreciation that comes with every experience is a big part of the book, as well.

Uh, also, there's just great stories in here, too. There's a great story in here about you playing— Uh, with Kobe Bryant.

Yeah.

Uh, and that was a preseason game?

Uh, pre— that was kind of my welcome to the NBA moment. Uh, preseason game, getting a, uh— I got switched on to him, and, uh, he was giving me those, like, body blows with his elbow, like, with, you know, things that he—

Now, you're going into this a fan, obviously, of Kobe.

Yeah.

And going, "Dude, I—" I'm in awe, like— Right?

Yeah.

Yeah, what am I doing playing with Kobe Bryant? And he's elbowing you. You're like, "This is kind of cool, but also hurts." And my, uh, 100%—

and my naive self is looking at the ref, like, asking for a call. Like, they're gonna give me a call over Kobe, right?

Yeah.

And then he caught the ball, did a little left shoulder fadeaway, and then ran down the court. And I was like, "All right, all right. Welcome to the NBA." Yeah, yeah.

He schooled you. Did you ever get to play him again?

I did. About 3 years later, I hit a shot on him on the top of the key, and that was kind of his passing the torch moment back to me. He kind of gave me a little pat on the way back down the court. Yeah, he said, "You got it, bud." So, yeah, it was kind of cool to get the initiation and then get the torch passed like that.

That's what I'm talking about. It's those little things like that you never forget, right?

Yeah.

I just want to show a picture because— What are you doing? I just— no, I think this little guy, this kid would have been proud. Look at how cute. Yeah, come on. They're great photos.

Oh, man.

He would have been.

It took me a long time to get this, so I'm grateful for the compliment, for real. Well, I mean, we're doing— we doing embarrassing picture moment? There's so many other good pictures in there. That's the one you want to pick? Yeah, that's the one.

Yeah.

Well, all right then. We'll play that game.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I came prepared. I got a little something for you. Wait.

Check that out. Is that the Pixel 10 Pro phone?

You did the Made by Google event, right? I'm a Google partner. I know how to find it.

How did you get this? When I hosted this Google event, they wouldn't give me a phone.

They were holding out on you.

This is my jam. Look at this thing.

They were holding out. Look at that picture right there.

No, that's his—

That's this guy.

That's a sexy— that's a sexy 13-year-old. How did you get— this is the jam.

I know you were there doing the unveiling. I'm a Google partner, so they gave me one. They knew I was coming, and then they knew you were going to have some heat, so I had to make sure—

Come on, bud. This is for me?

That's for you. You can keep it.

Dude, you can do— you're the best.

You point at me, you give me—

come on. This is my jam.

You can keep it.

Thank you. I can? Absolutely. This is the man right here. Stephen Curry, everybody, his book, "Shot Ready." This is the best. It's out now. More tonight, right after the break. Stick around, everybody.