Thursday, November 22, 2007

NY Times article


Players to Watch

Stephen Curry
Davidson, sophomore guard

After Stephen Curry caught the ball in the corner and drove to the middle only to be called for a charging foul at the Kobe Bryant Skills Academy for the nation’s top shooting guards, the camp’s namesake whispered advice to him.

“Don’t force things,” Bryant told Curry. “Just take what the defense gives you.”

This season, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Curry will be challenged to heed that advice. Opponents are sure to focus on him after his stellar freshman season, when he averaged 21.5 points, second to Texas’s Kevin Durant, the second pick in June’s N.B.A. draft.

Curry is one of five returning starters from a team that won 29 games and lost to Maryland in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament. He has a slight tear in his left wrist that needs surgery, but he plans to play through the injury this season.

“I expect teams to try and take me out of my game,” said Curry, the 19-year-old son of the former N.B.A. sharpshooter Dell Curry. “I’m definitely ready for double teams and traps.”

Indeed, Curry is. In a loss to top-ranked North Carolina this month, he scored a game-high 24 points. Davidson also plays Duke, U.C.L.A. and North Carolina State this season.

“We have a lot of opportunities to do some good things,” Curry said. “We’ve just got to take advantage.”

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