Before becoming one of basketball’s biggest stars, Stephen Curry was a pregnancy his mother, Sonya, had not planned. In her memoir, Fierce Love, she recounted that she seriously considered terminating the pregnancy and even went to a clinic to do so. However, while she was there, she changed her mind and decided to go through with it. Decades later, that family story took on an unexpected dimension when considering everything her son would go on to achieve.
Curry was born in 1988 and grew up in a family deeply connected to basketball. His father, Dell Curry, had a long career in the NBA, but Stephen was not initially considered a future superstar. In fact, his slender build and unconventional style of play made several major universities doubt him. He ended up playing at Davidson College, where he quickly began attracting attention for a skill that would later become his signature: shooting three-pointers from practically anywhere on the court.
In 2009, he entered the NBA after being selected by the Golden State Warriors. What came next changed his life and the sport as well.
Curry became the leading figure of a revolution based on three-point shooting and helped transform the way teams understood offense. His ability to make shots from extraordinary distances led an entire generation of players to attempt shots that had previously seemed too risky.
With Golden State, he won four NBA championships, in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022. He was also named the league’s MVP twice, and in 2016 he made history by becoming the first player unanimously selected to receive that honor. That same year, he had an extraordinary season in which the Warriors set a record with 73 wins in the regular season.
His name also became forever tied to the record that best represents his style of play. In December 2021, he surpassed Ray Allen and became the player with the most made three-pointers in NBA history. In March 2025, he reached another unprecedented milestone: he became the first player to make 4.000 three-pointers during the regular season. This is not merely a statistical record: Curry helped make the three-point shot the center of modern basketball.
And perhaps that is why his family story is so striking when viewed from the present. Sonya Curry made a decision during a difficult moment in her life that, according to her own account, could have completely changed her family’s future. Years later, that child became an NBA champion, a global star, and one of the players who has had the greatest influence on the evolution of the sport. A story that began with a personal decision ended up becoming part of the life of one of basketball’s great legends.