Stephen Curry was a kid who loved to play basketball. His father played it. He spent his childhood stroking jumpers on every circle this side of a Hula Hoop.
But as a 6-foot-2, 160-pound shooting senior in high school, his college options were as limited as the foresight of those making the decision.
"He couldn't get anyone to recruit him," McCallie School coach John Shulman said after hearing that Curry, the kid almost no one wanted, was named the NBA Most Valuable Player on Monday. "It was Davidson and that's it. It's such an inexact science, and really we have no idea."
"He cost my good friend Seth Greenberg his job."
As the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga head coach, Shulman had a front-row seat as Curry became the best Southern Conference basketball player of the last 50 years. He was there when Curry hit a three-quarter-court shot at the Roundhouse that was amazing but not all that surprising.
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry holds the NBA's Most Valuable Player award at a basketball news conference Monday, May 4, 2015, in Oakland, Calif.It was Curry, after all, and regardless of the questions about whether he could physically handle the next level, he, like his father, always could shoot.
Dell Curry was the best player in Virginia Tech's forgettable basketball history, scoring more than 2,600 points. Then-Virginia Tech coach Greenberg offered Steph an opportunity to walk on with the Hokies.
Davidson's late scholarship offer changed everything. It also serves as the clearest and most recent reminder of the glaring holes in the recruiting process and the possibilities for the dozens to hundreds of players who just desire a chance.
"I can remember going back to HoopScoop magazine and they had their top 1,000 players and where they were going," Shulman said. "Curry was like 488th and everyone thought he was just another player."
That "just another player," as Shulman accurately called the old-school version of Curry, is now among the elite group who have been named the best NBA player in a season.
Curry may or may not be more valuable than LeBron James in the grand scheme of professional basketball, but that's as much about the business of the game as the game. James is arguably the biggest star in all of team sports, but Curry simply was the best player on the best team this year.
In fact, 10 teams have won 67 or more games in an NBA season, and the MVP was been picked from those teams eight times. The two outliers are Michael Jordan on the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls (the only 67-plus-win team that failed to meet the previous season's win total and when voter fatigue worked against Jordan) and the 1971-72 Lakers (a team so balanced they had four Hall of Famers -- Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Gail Goodrich -- and each starter averaged 13 points per game or more).
This is not to downgrade Curry's season. He scored almost 24 points a game and averaged 7.7 assists and two steals a game. Plus, he is the game's most deadly shooter, regardless of percentages, and makes basketball purists smile at the thought of a 20-footer.
It's the culmination of the rise of the sweet-shooting kid born to privilege who has refused to take no for an answer.
He was a high school player who was not big enough for college basketball.
He was a college kid with a name and a pure release that made scouts question whether he was big enough to be a high first-round pick.
Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) reacts after hitting a 3-point basket during the second half of Game 4 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the New Orleans Pelicans in New Orleans, Saturday, April 25, 2015. The Warriors won 109-98 to sweep the series. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) "We played (DeMur) DeRozan and Tyreke Evans and Steph," Shulman recalled of the trio of future top-10 picks his Mocs faced in the 2008-09 season, "and DeRozan got 12 (points) on us and Evans scored 14, and those two guys could really play.
"Curry put 41 on us and everyone was wondering, 'Can he play at the next level?' It should have hit us then that the kid could play, and we should have put 2 and 2 together."
Shulman also relayed a story about getting to meet Curry recently and how grounded and true the now-MVP was.
"The great thing is he's still the same kid. Still a great person," Shulman said.
The effort and success and notoriety haven't changed Curry a bit. He's a great player whom kids can look toward as someone who never gave up on his dream.
Congrats, Steph, and thanks for allowing the rest of us to tag along as you realized your dream and made believers out of everyone.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. Read his online column "The 5-at-10" weekdays starting at 10 a.m. at timesfreepress.com.