The 2019 NBA Finals ended on June 13 with the Toronto Raptors defeating the Golden State Warriors, four games to two. Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry tried his best to lead his team to victory but despite his averaging 30.5 points per game, the Warriors were unable to overcome injuries to two of their other star players, Kevin Durant and Clay Thompson.
While the point guard is optimistic by nature, he admitted that he’s faced his share of testing on the court. The loss to Toronto was just the latest. “My faith is tested on the court as much as it is in life,” Curry stated. “It’s the part that always keeps me focused on what I need to do when it comes to my family, when it comes to my job, when it comes to how I treat other people, my appreciation for life and all the good things that happen and how to deal with the bad things that happen.”
“I put believer first, because that is supposed to be the roots of everything that I do as a believer, as a husband, as a father, and on down from there,” Curry said.
He shared how his relationship with Jesus Christ impacts his basketball career, family, and life’s successes and failures. “Faith to me is believing in the unseen, and having a conviction that there is a higher power that has given me a purpose to what I am doing on this earth,” he continued. “For me, that is the foundation to how I live my life and how I want to see the world through that lens.”
Curry’s parents, Dell and Sonya, shared that they raised the young man to hold faith as a foundational value. He attended youth services on Wednesdays and he and his family would all attend church Sunday mornings.
“My faith to me is my strength,” Sonya Curry noted. “When I have questions, challenges, I read the Word, and it’s my beacon of light, my lighthouse.” She ensures that her children read the word of God as well, “to emphasize putting God first.”
Curry’s faith, however, became his own when he was in the eighth grade. “Christianity was more something that was important to my parents but I never really understood it,” Curry explained. “It was a decision I needed to make for myself. I was kinda just going with the flow.”
After hearing a sermon from a minister named Pastor Jason, Curry walked up to the altar to receive Christ as his savior for himself. “I felt a calling, went down to the altar, and gave my life to Christ,” the athlete testified. “That became the beginning of my own personal journey.
“My faith is about the personal relationship, more so than following a certain religious tradition or practice. Challenges you to make sure that you are feeding your spirit with the right things versus what the world is throwing at us. It’s a constant battle, if I say I have it down, I’d be lying.”
After suffering some injuries on the court, Curry revealed that his mother challenged him to go into the Bible and find scriptures he can lean on when going back on the court. He began writing “I can do all things …” on all of his sneakers and it’s a scripture he anchors his faith on until this day.
“My mom challenged me to find a verse that I could rely on to give me strength, give me a sense of purpose and to remember who I was playing for every time I lace up my sneakers,” he explained. “It reminds me why I am blessed with these talents, where I get my strength from, and who I am playing for. I strive to be myself, live out my faith, continue to learn, and not be afraid of that higher calling. I feel there’s a responsibility to that, and I own it.”