“She was gonna be my biggest supporter no matter what I did,” Stephen says of his now-wife

Stephen Curry is opening up about his relationship with his wife, Ayesha Curry.

Stephen and Ayesha Curry

While speaking with PEOPLE exclusively about his new memoir Shot Ready, the Golden State Warriors star, 37, reflected on a tough decision he faced while at Davidson College — one that not only shaped his career path but also strengthened his bond with Ayesha, 36.

Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry attend the 2023 Sundance Film Festival "Stephen Curry: Underrated" Premiere

“We had just started dating, or about a year and some change in, and I was deciding whether I was gonna go to the draft or not, and, you know, communication, trust, and the whole deal — being able to… I was going through it,” Stephen recalls.

At the time, Curry says he felt torn. “It was weird ’cause I was picking between realizing the NBA dream and leaving college early, and not being able to see those four years through,” he explains. “And I loved school and the experience and playing for Coach McKillop at Davidson.”

In the middle of that uncertainty, Curry turned to Ayesha — whom he first met at church in North Carolina when they were teenagers — for advice. “She actually told me to stay in school because of how important finishing my degree was and the whole deal,” he says.

Curry ultimately decided to leave Davidson after his junior year and enter the 2009 NBA Draft, where he was selected by the Golden State Warriors.

He’s since spent 16 seasons with the team, winning championships in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022. Now, as he prepares for his 17th season, Curry says he still looks back on that conversation as a defining moment in their relationship.

“That conversation and the emotions that I got to share really just established the fact that she was gonna be my biggest supporter no matter what I did,” he explains. “And, you know, the idea that we’ve been through so many experiences throughout the years, I can go back to that foundation of support and being able to lean on each other through that conversation.

“So, it’s a core memory for me personally, but also for our relationship,” he adds.

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The couple, of course, are now happily married with four children: daughters Riley, 13, and Ryan, 10, and sons Canon, 7, and Caius, 16 months.

During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast in August, Ayesha touched on that same moment and shared that she didn’t necessarily give Stephen the best advice at the time.

“I was like, ‘Stay in school,’ ” Ayesha told podcast host Alex Cooper, adding how she didn’t expect Stephen to go on to have a professional basketball career.

“I didn’t grow up surrounded by people who went to college,” she continued. “That for me was like, ‘Wow, what a blessing.’ Like you get to go to college, you get to have an education, why would you leave? And then not coming from that sports background and understanding how rare the opportunity he had was, I was like, ‘Yeah. Stay at school.’ “