The Phenomenal Stephen Curry - Basketball's Newest Superstar - Essay Sample

Introduction

Basketball is an exciting sport that has several notable legends, such as Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the late Kobe Bryant. However, we still have the current crop of players who are taking the sport to even greater heights, and they include; LeBron James and Stephen Curry. Stephen Curry is a male basketball player at the Golden State Warriors, as a point guard or shooting guard. He is currently aged 32 years and plays in the NBA basketball competition held in the United States. The reason behind selecting Stephen Curry is due to the remarkable story that can be a highlight of upcoming basketball athletes. For example, when he was growing up, Curry would play basketball in the backyard with his brother, and little did the siblings know that one day they would both the playing in the NBA. The paper will analyze the intriguing story of Steph Curry and dynamic skills and optimization of the position that Stephen Curry plays.

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Stephen Curry drew the inspiration to become an NBA player from his father, Dell who was also a basketball player. While Stephen Curry spent enough time at school and church, he had a desire for basketball, and his parents inspired him to keep up the hobby. At the age of six, Steph joined his very first basketball team “Naomi Drenan Recreational Center” in Charlotte (Duling, 2019). After a scintillating college career, he went on to join the Golden State Warriors, as the seventh whole pick in the 2009 draft. Stephen has since marveled there as a player, shattering many NBA records during his initial five years in league history. He clinched his first NBA championship in 2015, and the second award in 2017. In terms of personal achievements, he won the Most Valuable Player awards for two consecutive seasons (2014-15, 2015-16 seasons) (Duling, 2019).

Analysis of Shooting Stance, Alignment, and Mechanics

Exemplary shooters like Stephen Curry depend on solid mechanics. Every part of their bodies works in tandem to become the basis of their shots (Curry, n.d). Stephen Curry reckons that every good shot starts in the lower body. He advises upcoming athletes to begin by pointing their toes in the same direction, by first squaring them with the rim, and then working hard in practice to discover the most natural position of their body. The legs are responsible for instilling power and consistency by pushing the arches of the feet into the floor. Keeping your knees behind your toes, focus on unleashing power and energy flow from the feet through the hips and glutes will also help to improve the shooting skills to the upcoming athletes (Curry, n.d). Steph Curry also indicates that hand positioning is also core to becoming a consistent shooter. It impacts feel, proper spin, connection, and regulation through the release (Curry, n.d).

During practice, Stephen always starts by shooting easy baskets from the pain, then focuses on improving his mechanics. Every time, Curry misses the basket, he analyzes what did not work out with his mechanics, and this helps him to adjust appropriately leading to a successful second attempt (Curry, n.d). Further, Steph’s shots that curve out long or short tend to be a subject of discovering his rhythm through more training and recovering his feet for the ball (Curry, n.d). Stephen Curry indicates that the skill of shooting is genuinely a very complex science that needs to be learned gradually to perfection (Curry, n.d). So, he makes it’s a mandate to be shot-ready so that he’s set up for successful 3-point shots, and this done even before he gets his hands on the ball.

Dynamic Analysis and Optimization of Stephen Curry’s 3-Point Shot

Prasad et al., (2016) conducted a study that proposed a method for examining the 3-point shooting style of Steph Curry, and improvised a revised shooting technique that reduces the energy of motion without a profound deviation from his original form. The study applied the canon of robotics, a multifaceted model to assess the motion of Stephen Curry while executing the 3-point shot. To decrease the intricacy of the shooting motion, Curry’s body was designed by a “3-DOF” manipulator with one prismatic joint and two revolute joints (P-R-R) (Prasad et al., 2016). Nevertheless, the results only provided rough approximations of the shooting motion. As accurately, the human body is an extremely complex structure with physiological anomalies that cannot be realistically modeled into either 2-D or 3-D by a P-R-R robot (Kato et al., 1996). Hence, in their analysis, two significant features were omitted from the optimization. First, the generalizing the jump using a prismatic joint, which permitted the robot to continue increasing upward, when a player leaves the ground in the process of making a 3-point shot. Second, the wrist increases velocities in “x” and “z” directions and designs the upper arm’s angular motion Hence the dynamic model was followed to reduce these impacts (Prasad et al., 2016).

A Spatial Analysis and Comparison of NBA players

Rumsey (n.d) study attempts to examine the discrepancy in the shot choice and efficacy through the utilization of spatial statistics. Utilizing the “Point Pattern” study, the author improvised a “non-homogeneous” poison processes to compare the shot intensity, and Spatial logistic regression to decrypt the referenced information. The shot intensity analysis was made to compare James and Curry, and the results revealed that as normal, Curry shoots from a further away more often than James, albeit the latter has a greater intensity of shots near the basket (Rumsey, n.d). Another reason that makes Curry more successful in 3-point shots is that it is 50 pounds less heavy than James, and the latter is a half-foot taller (Rumsey, n.d). Steph Curry’s shot choice is somehow more homogeneous, and thus must shoot whenever space opens up for him. On the other hand, LeBron is successful with two-point shots, and shots close to the basket due to his high efficiency.

Conclusion

Stephen Curry is truly an immeasurable athlete that battled all the storms of childhood to even have a prominent career way above what his dad “Dell Curry” achieved during his playing time. Based on this premise, many researchers have been interested in analyzing the success factors of Stephen curry, and this paper has touched on some specifics; shooting stance, alignment, and mechanics of this player that makes him lethal with the 3-point shots than any other player in the NBA history. Steph’s training mentality and intensity are unique due to the following aspects; Stephen always starts by shooting easy baskets from the pain, then focuses on improving his mechanics. Every time, Curry misses the basket, he analyzes what did not work out with his mechanics, and this helps him to adjust appropriately leading to a successful second attempt. Such an approach will be important for upcoming basketball athletes and it will help them translate their dreams into reality.

References

Curry, S. Stephen curry teaches shooting, ball-handling, and scoring. Masterclass. http://dl.masterclassiran.com/workbook/STEPHEN%20CURRY%20WORKBOOK%20-%20WWW.MASTERCLASSIRAN.COM.pdf

Duling, K. (2019). Stephen Curry: NBA Sharpshooter. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC.

Jin, B., Joseph, J., Prasad, R. R., & Song-Chen, Y. (2016). Dynamic Analysis and Optimization of Stephen Curry’s 3-point shot. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Group7_RoboticsFinalProjectReport.pdf

Kato, N., Matsuda, K., & Nakamura, T. (1996, March). Adaptive control for a throwing motion of a 2 DOF robot. In Proceedings of 4th IEEE International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control-AMC'96-MIE (Vol. 1, pp. 203-207). IEEE. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/509405/

Rumsey, K. A spatial analysis and comparison of NBA players. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4624/f43f1aee7c39d5709f915cb66b553dab59f1.pdf