Seth Curry Rejected Warriors’ Offer to Avoid ‘Steph’s Shadow’

The Golden State Warriors were among several suitors this summer for Stephen Curry’s younger brother, Seth.

Curry, 25, ended up signing a two-year deal with the Sacramento Kings and is looking forward to getting out from under his MVP sibling’s considerable shadow.

Despite numerous setbacks during his basketball odyssey, the third Curry to make into the NBA says his older bro’s unexpected success kept his own dream alive: “I played against this guy my whole life,” he thought. “I can make that league.”

Per SI:

Steph’s story is a fairy tale. Seth’s is the reality play of an undersized and underrecruited combo guard, with excellent genes and awful luck. He put up more points in a season than anybody in the history of Charlotte Christian High—including the 2015 NBA MVP. He was the top-scoring freshman in the nation at Liberty. He transferred to Duke, where he averaged 17.5 points as a senior, despite wearing a walking boot at every practice because of a stress fracture in his right shin. “He’s going to be as good or better than I am,” Steph predicted in ’08. But 6’2″, 185-pound snipers are never a sure thing, regardless of the name on the back of their jersey. Seth went undrafted in ’13.

 

Over the past two years Seth dominated the NBA Development League, scoring 23.8 points per game last season for the Erie BayHawks and sinking 46.7% of his threes. He went on binges, like the time he reeled off 25 points against Delaware in the fourth quarter and overtime. And he shook off slumps, like the time he started 0 for 10 against Sioux Falls and emerged from the bench to nail the game-winner. He has a scoop shot and a step-back jumper, same as his brother, and he bounds around screens and finds open spaces, same as his father. But the blend is all his own. So why, given his dynamic skills and famous bloodline, did it take so long for a team to claim him? “I’ve heard people say I’m a Curry and that helped me get where I am,” Seth says. “Sometimes I think it’s the opposite.”

 

The Kings made the strongest offer on July 21—the day after Summer League ended—but not the only one. The Pelicans, Hornets and Warriors jumped in as well. “I didn’t want to go to Golden State,” Seth says. “I didn’t want to go back in Steph’s shadow.” He will come off the bench in Sacramento, as a backup to point guards Rajon Rondo and Darren Collison, and a complement to both in smaller lineups. Seth and Rondo could form a particularly intriguing pair, since Seth can space the floor with his shooting and Rondo cannot. “I know that people compared him to Steph, and that may have hurt him before, but I will not do that,” Divac says. “I’m just looking for Seth. He is my guy.”