Steph Curry's Toronto high school coach reminisces as Raptors loom in NBA Finals
The city of Toronto is mad with Raptors zeal as the city prepares to take part in its first NBA Finals. Yet one particular resident is rooting against the Raptors, even though he considers himself one of their biggest fans.
Meet James Lackey, the boys basketball coach at Brampton Christian School who previous coached Queensway Christian College in 2001, when both Steph and Seth Curry arrived to play for him after their father, Dell Curry, signed to play with the Raptors. While Dell Curry finished his NBA career North of the border, his sons began their ascent at a tiny Christian school.
While Lackey told CBC he was initially disappointed to see the Curry brothers’ lack of height, that didn’t last long. And it gave way to his witness of a dramatic evolution of Steph Curry as master marksman and outright dominant star.
Here’s just one of the stories of Steph Curry’s Canadian dominance that Lackey shared with CBC:
We had an undefeated season and we were playing against this really good Toronto team. We were down by maybe six or seven points with a minute left to go.
So I just called a time-out as a learning experience just to prepare the boys. You know, they hadn’t lost yet, and just to say, “Hey, let’s be good sports whether we win or lose and shake hands and keep your heads up.”
And Stephen just stopped me right in the middle of my speech and he said, “We are not going to lose this game.”
And he said, “Give me the ball and we will win.”
So I said, “Alright, guys, that’s the play. Anytime you get the ball, pass to Stephen.”
The next 60 seconds were something I don’t think I’ll ever see again. He was shooting from everywhere. I don’t think he missed a single shot. And we were down by six or seven points, and we ended up winning by six or seven points.
It was the most dramatic turnaround I had ever seen.
A 13-point shift in one minute? That sounds like Steph Curry all right.
If Lackey is the one Toronto native cheering for the Warriors in the Finals, it seems safe to say he’ll be doing so with sufficient vigor. After seeing Steph Curry accomplish the Canadian scholastic basketball equivalent of water into wine, it might be sacrilege for him not to do so.