VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Stephen Curry missed three shots and made them all.
Really, that’s what happened.
Allow us to explain: The NBA’s all-time 3-point king was messing around a bit at practice as the U.S. men’s basketball team was getting in work at the Paris Olympics on Friday, shooting high-arching shots from about 35 feet.
His plan was to have the ball land a bit short of the rim, then bounce off the court back over the rim, hit the backboard and go through the hoop.
And he kept making the trick shot work. He added a little celebration at the end of all of them; a fist-pump, a little body English, a pirouette or sometimes just hopping with joy.
USA Basketball released video of Curry’s trickery, with someone asking him how he knows when the shot will be successful.
“You just gotta feel it,” Curry said.
The Golden State Warriors star is no stranger to making trick shots - and making them look much easier than they really are. At the Warriors’ former home, Oracle Arena, his pregame heaves from the courtside tunnel at the end of his warmup session were a nightly spectacle. And at the team’s current building, Chase Center, Curry has made similarly ridiculous shots from the stands and from well beyond the far end of the court.
The U.S. plays Puerto Rico on Saturday in the final game of the group phase. The Americans - seeking a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal - will then play in Paris in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday.
Curry is on the Olympic team for the first time. He has 3,747 3-pointers in NBA regular-season games, 774 more than Ray Allen, who is No. 2 on the all-time list.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
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