Who is Writing YOUR Story?
A long time ago, I played girls’ basketball just as they switched from half court to full court. My high school didn’t have a girl’s team (this was WELL before Title IX.) A bunch of us pivoted and got our Parks and Rec Department to sponsor a church league. Fast forward, my team won the league tournament and I was selected for the all-star team to play in the state tournament. We found ourselves in a battle royale in the championship game against a tough team. My coach told me not to let their talented guard “into my house” (translation: don’t give her the lane in front of the basket.) Up by just two points with 11 seconds remaining, I remember locking eyes on her as she ran the ball up the court from the far end. It was a staredown. She had bedeviled me all game with terrific moves and she was just 5’4” tall. I had to keep her out of my house! Despite those hours-long seconds, she was unable to penetrate the lane, and they did not make their outside shot. We barely held on, but won the title!
I played center, but let me tell you, point guards have ALWAYS had my respect. Years later, I liked a basketball player named Mugsy Bogues, a 1988 fan favorite of the Hornets expansion team. He was just 5’3”. Didn’t matter, he could PLAY!!! Recently, I saw this article on my social media feed and thought it too good not to share.
********************
In 2001, 13-year-old Stephen Curry’s AAU basketball team lost a big game. “We lost badly, and I played worse,” he writes on the Players’ Tribune. “It really felt like a wake-up call … that I just wasn’t good enough.”
It was that night, in a Holiday Inn Express in Tennessee, that his mom gave him a memorable piece of advice.
She said something along the lines of: “NO ONE gets to write your story but you,” Curry, now 30, recalls. “Not some scouts. Not some tournament. Not these other kids, who might do this better or that better. … None of those people, and none of those things, gets to be the author of your story. Just you. So think real hard about it.
“Take your time. And then you go and write what you want to write. But just know that this story — it’s yours.”
To this day, “it’s the best advice I’ve ever gotten,” Curry writes. “And anytime I’ve needed it — anytime I’ve been snubbed, or underrated, or even flat-out disrespected — I’ve just remembered those words, and I’ve persevered.”
Before establishing himself as one of the greatest basketball players in the world, Curry was overlooked by virtually every big Division I college basketball program, including Virginia Tech, where his dad Dell Curry played before his successful NBA career. He ended up at Davidson College, a small liberal arts school in North Carolina, where the team “shared a practice court with the volleyball team” and was constantly reminded that “we were not playing Big-Time College Hoops,” recalls Curry.
Even after making a splash at Davidson and leading the team on a remarkable March Madness run to the sweet sixteen, NBA draft analysts doubted him when he entered the 2009 draft.
It was during those times in particular when Curry would repeat to himself: “This is no one’s story to write but mine. It’s no one’s story but mine.”
Anytime I’ve needed it — anytime I’ve been snubbed, or underrated, or even flat-out disrespected — I’ve just remembered those words, and I’ve persevered.
Steph Curry
Today, the Golden State Warriors star has three NBA championships and two MVP awards under his belt.
Despite his success, “that chip on my shoulder has never gone anywhere,” writes Curry. “If anything, it’s only become more and more a part of me.
“And I think that’s one of the biggest things I’ve really come to understand about myself over the last 17 years: The way that ‘underrated’ might start as just some feeling the world imposes on you. But if you figure out how to harness it? It can become a feeling that you impose on the world.”
******
Steph Curry is not tall by today’s NBA standards, where players can stand flat-footed and tip-touch the rim. He is a modest 6’3”. He is living proof that even with clear disadvantages, you CAN overcome and reach your dreams.
Why share this in this blog? Simple. We forget to write our story. There are always bad breaks as well as great opportunities in our life journey. It is how we deal with BOTH that creates our story.
When it comes to your education and future, you are the KEY component to your own success, dear student. Parents, let that sink in. In fact- help drive it in. Life is all about problem-solving. Steph Curry did not let others determine his future. Steph turned his tough breaks into springboards to prove “them” wrong. He turned barriers into kindling to fuel his own success. He couldn’t control his size, but he could work hard and outplay his opponents. In a lot of ways, it sounds like a David and Goliath story.
What is your Goliath? What handicap do you work with? We all have them. The question is what are you willing to do about it? As my Dad used to say, “Dreams are great, but they only become real when you put a foundation under them.”
Get going on the foundation for your own dreams!!
Next week- A quick tutorial on college money basics for your college student!
Until Next Time,
All My Best,
Bonnie
