Stephen Curry On His College Head Coach’s Impact On His Career

Stephen Curry will forever be grateful to Bob McKillop.

Stephen Curry held the latest edition of his “Curry Camp” at Arrillaga Family Gym, Menlo Park, this week. Bob McKillop, Curry’s head coach at Davidson College, was among the instructors, and he told a reporter that he knew the guard was going to be special before he ever played for him. The message was relayed to Curry, and he spoke about his former head coach’s impact on his career.

“I truly am thankful that he had that kind of perspective on me when I was getting recruited,” Curry said. “And my favorite line he said was, my mom was like, ‘We’ll put some weight on him before I showed up to campus,’ and he was like, ‘No, we’ll take him just the way he is,’ which is a reflection of his belief in me.

“And confidence to go through the ups and downs of college and the transition, go from there,” Curry continued. “So, you have to have people that kind of see your potential and instill that in you over time. And he was definitely the greatest at doing that for me.”

McKillop and Davidson aggressively recruited Curry from the 10th grade. With none of the big programs showing a lot of interest in him, in part due to his slender frame, the young guard decided to take up their offer.

Curry dazzled at Davidson, famously leading them to the Elite Eight in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. They beat Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin before losing to eventual champions Kansas.

Curry could have easily headed to the NBA after that season, but chose to stick around for another year. He ended up averaging 25.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game in his three seasons under McKillop.

The Golden State Warriors then selected Curry with the seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, and the rest is history. He has won four titles, a Finals MVP, two MVPs, and two scoring titles with the Warriors.

Curry has now firmly established himself as the greatest shooter in NBA history and as one of the all-time greats of the game. He remains grateful to McKillop for believing in him at a time when not many did and for strengthening his belief in his own abilities.

McKillop retired from coaching in 2022 after 33 seasons at Davidson. That fire still burns inside him, though, and that became evident when he was giving a speech at the camp.

“I’m going to hold you accountable,” McKillop said. “We’re going to spend 90 minutes of accountability. Discipline comes before freedom, and I’m going to make sure you do the details. There will be no shortcuts. I’m going to get in your face, and I’m going to do it for you, not to you.

“You see, I want greatness for you,” McKillop continued. “Just like we have greatness for Steph Curry… Repetitions are going to make you better. They’re going to create habits, and that’s what you need: habits. And I’m going to hold you accountable for it.” 

Curry didn’t get to the top by taking shortcuts, and that was an important message to relay to the kids at the camp. No matter how gifted you may be, you have to work your socks off and hold yourself accountable if you want to amount to anything significant in life.