Talent will only take you far enough without a sickening work ethic. Through the vivid world of sports, there have been several athletes with infinite potential who have waned due to this. At the same time, there are the improbable ones, those who rise through consistency. Such is the case of Stephen Curry. His love for shooting the ball as a little kid, and going to practice with his father, Dell Curry, led him to reach the heights he has done. Now, even at the pinnacle of basketball and among the most celebrated, his life remains consistent.

When speaking of his shooting, the Chef often underscores the role of “balance”. With everything aligned, it doesn’t matter where or how he shoots, “I feel like I’m never going to miss”. The confidence stems from his strenuous preparations, a routine that had Eric Spoelstra dumbfounded in Paris.

“If you label him as the best shooter of all time, that there has to be some level of unreasonable OCD level of work. And I can say that firsthand, even out of his, at that age, his routine after practice, every single day, was so consistent,” the Heat coach detailed on the Five on The Floor podcast. 

Curry is now 36 years old, still that his regime remains the same. And it’s meticulous. One of the rules that he seems to follow is to never leave on a miss. Additionally, if he can’t finish the workout in the model way, he isn’t finished. “And then if he didn’t finish it the way he wanted to, it would be another, start over, it would be another 20 minutes,” Spo revealed. These exact preparations ultimately helped him on the biggest of stages.

Through his illustrious career, the Baby-Faced Assassin never had the chance to play in the Olympics until he joined the ‘Avengers’. The riveting three-point shooter, though, had far from an ideal start. In the first four games, he shot only 25% from three and couldn’t click into his dangerous rhythm. Still, nobody seemed worried when it came to his slump.

How Stephen Curry used consistency to win over Paris

Curry himself knew it was only a matter of time before the “floodgates open”. The 4x champion continued his routine. The same pregame routine and the same tendency to “shoot shots you think you can make”. In the case of Stephen Curry, that spectrum is vast. And soon, he let the world know just why he is revered as the most feared presence on the court.

Against Serbia in the semifinals, the entire Team USA collapsed for three quarters. The Nikola Jokic-led Serbs, on the contrary, couldn’t seem to miss. The man who kept the USA within hitting range to eventually turn their fortunes? Stephen Curry. He made 9 threes en route to his game-high 36 points to help the star-studded contingent reach the gold medal game.

There, in the final moments, reality struck. LeBron James and Kevin Durant, two of the most decorated scorers in NBA history, were on the floor. Yet, the double team by France was solely focused on shutting down Curry. His final nail in the coffin came over exactly two people, shooting what seemed to be a Hail Mary while off balance.

It was followed by the iconic ‘night night’ to secure the ultimate prize for Team USA. Without his persistence, none of it would have been possible. And it goes back to his regular, monotonous routine that helped him become the most lethal shooter in NBA history.