With just over seven minutes left in the Golden State Warriors’ clash against the Philadelphia 76ers, Steph Curry produced something rarely seen in his long, glittering career as he dunked for the first time in six years and perhaps for the last time too.
“That will probably be my last dunk,” Curry told reporters afterward. “I’m calling it right now. That was the last one you’re going to see.”
Curry led the way for the Warriors with 29 points and 13 assists but, in the absence of Jimmy Butler, his team fell to a 119-126 defeat against the 76ers on Saturday, snapping their five-game win streak.
Though he holds the NBA’s three-point record, Curry’s dunks are a much rarer occurrence – a reel showing all his dunks runs to just six minutes on YouTube – and he still remembers everything about his last one six years ago.
“Six years ago. At home. Right wing. The right corner. A little back cut. I think it was a pass from KD (Kevin Durant),” he said. “I was at Oracle. I never dunked at Chase (Center). How about that?
“I’ve been feeling pretty good. I’ve been doing some knee stuff all year. And you want to take advantage of a cherry-pick opportunity,” Curry added. “It took everything out of me to get up there.”
After the dunk, as the crowd celebrated seeing such a rare sight, Curry turned and pointed towards the bench, towards the Warriors’ assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse, he later said.
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“Ironically, this morning at shooter run, Stackhouse said he wanted to see a dunk,” Curry said.
“He hadn’t said that all year and I haven’t heard that in years and it happened tonight which is kind of funny. It was a very random comment this morning.”
Despite Curry’s best efforts, the Warriors were undone by a careless offense and by Philadelphia’s Quentin Grimes who scored a career-high 44 points.
His dunk trimmed the 76ers’ lead to 109-104 and the Warriors managed to get the scores level at 116 with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter.
But Grimes immediately responded and the 76ers pulled away again to win their first game since February 4.
