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Before Steph Curry was a three-time NBA champion, two-time MVP, and five-time All-Star, the superstar was a 5-foot-8 overlooked kid from Akron, Ohio, who was passed over by several major ACC schools, including his parents’ Alma Mater, Virginia Tech. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
But now, as a 10-year veteran in the pros, Curry is looking to use his platform to help other overlooked high school ballers pursue their basketball dreams.
In a recent piece of the Players’ Tribune, Curry detailed his journey as an underrated, overlooked baller, and announced his plan to launch a new basketball camp for those who’ve fallen victim to negative scouting reports and low rates.
“It’s called ‘The Underrated Tour,’” Curry revealed. “It basically goes like this: You’ve got all these camps out there, right? All these basketball camps, across the country, around the world. And it’s great, man. It’s special. Those camps are how a lot of NBA guys originally made names for themselves.”
But, according to Curry, the problem is inclusivity.
“If you take a closer look, you’ll see that it’s the same, exclusive group of kids participating in them, over and over. It’s these same four or five-star recruits, players every scout already knows, going from city to city, camp to camp,” he said. “But what about all the other kids? What about the kids who, for one reason or another, because of one perceived shortcoming or another, are getting labeled as two or three-star recruits?”
“Now I’m not saying those kids need to be at every camp,” he continued. “But if we have it set up so those kids can’t get invites to any camp?? Then I think we’ve got a problem. Because then I think we’re putting kids – kids who love to hoop, who should be out there exploring that love – in a situation where a bunch of limits are being placed on them by other people.”
“And so that’s the idea behind The Underrated Tour: to create a basketball camp, in partnership with Rakuten, for any unsigned high school players rated three stars and below. A camp for kids who love to hoop, and are looking for the chance to show scouts that their perceived weakness might actually be their secret strengths,” Curry said. “A camp for anyone who just isn’t willing to let the rest of the world write their story.”
