Stephen Curry Had to Build His Own Driveway Basketball Hoop
Stars are just like us
Stephen Curry has had way too much time off during this NBA season. First, a broken hand caused him to miss four months of action. When he came back, he played in one game before coming down with the flu. And then the season was put on hold.
Even worse, the NBA’s decision to close team facilities during the pandemic left Curry without a basketball hoop to shoot on. No, the greatest shooter in the history of the sport doesn’t have a hoop at his house—or he didn’t until recently.
After 16 days holed up at his Bay Area home unable to practice his craft, Curry’s wife, Ayesha, ordered him a Spalding hoop, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen.
When it arrived, it was up to Curry to assemble it himself. Just looking at the instruction manual left him feeling “overwhelmed,” Curry told the Journal.
“I was very confident in myself going in,” he said. “That was shot down pretty quick.”
After five hours of laborious assembly, Curry finally had himself a target to shoot on. (Although, without an outdoor basketball, he was forced to let an indoor one get chewed up by the pavement.)
Cohen’s story goes on to highlight the other ways Curry is spending his unexpected time off. He’s practicing his golf game (he and Kent Bazemore played against each other on a golf simulator), helping his daughter Riley with schoolwork and participating in cycling competitions against his teammates on Peloton.
But I want to know more about Curry’s quarantine hoop. Is it one of those ones with the big base that you have to fill with sand? With the really tiny backboard? We know he swishes all of his shots, but is the rim insanely unforgiving?
With only one ball and nobody to rebound for him, imagine how funny it is to see one of the best basketball players of all time running around his driveway like a kid. Ayesha better share some video of that.
Who wants free stuff?
We’ve got a giveaway today that’s perfect for everyone working from home: the Uber Mini Fridge.
It has a capacity of four liters, or six standard 12-oz. drink cans. It can cool your drinks down to 32 degrees or keep food warm up to 150 degrees.
It usually retails for $54.99, but we have three to give away to Hot Clicks readers. Here’s how to win.
- Go back to yesterday’s Hot Clicks.
- Find the name of the Nationals player with the Wiffle ball pitching machine.
- Send me an email (dan.gartland@si.com) with the subject line fridge giveaway and the name of the player in the body. (One email per person!)
- The 25th, 50th and 100th people to email me following those instructions will win.
Good luck!
The best of SI
Some of the biggest announcers in sports reveal which games they wished they called. ... The NFL needs to quit being so optimistic about the 2020 season. ... The current struggles faced by the Japanese baseball league should be a warning to MLB about the dangers of restarting play prematurely.
Around the sports world
Shin-Soo Choo is giving $1,000 to every minor leaguer in the Rangers’ system. ... Stephen Curry had to build himself a basketball hoop so he could keep shooting. ... A British man ran an entire marathon in his tiny backyard and livestreamed the whole thing on YouTube. ... How NHL team designers are trying to keep fans engaged during the season pause.
Please, LeBron. We need content.
Just let it grow out
Take that, Dad
She’s old enough that this wasn’t that weird back then
Crazy to see this guy back in the league
HBO aired the audio of (current!) LSU coach Will Wade’s wiretapped call about bribing a recruit’s family
Not sports
Musician Adam Schlesinger, of Fountains of Wayne fame, died at age 52 from coronavirus complications. ... Police in New York arrested a man illegally operating a speakeasy. ... The Florida sheriff whose office reopened the Carole Baskin case from Netflix’s Tiger King throws cold water on fans’ theories about her husband’s disappearance. ... The Getty Museum in Los Angeles asked fans to re-create famous works of art at home, and the results were hilarious.
More like “Whose Wife Is it Anyway?”
Governor Cuomo can’t stop needling his brother
A good song
Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
