PHILADELPHIA — Saturday morning at shootaround in the Wells Fargo Center, Warriors assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse told Steph Curry that he wanted to see a dunk.
Curry, the 36-year-old superstar, hadn’t heard that in years. The last in-game dunk he had was in 2019, before the team moved to Chase Center.
The Curry world has a way of manifesting.
In the fourth quarter against Philadelphia, Curry found himself wide open, cherry-picking alone after a broken play. Instead of kissing a layup off the glass, he rose up off two feet and stuffed in a one-handed dunk. Right after the ball fell through the nylon, the two-time MVP pointed at Stackhouse on the visitor’s bench.
“It was a very random comment this morning, and the fact that it happened was hilarious,” Curry said.
It also, according to Curry, will be the last slam dunk of his career.
“For sure,” Curry insisted. “I will only lay the ball up. It took everything out of me to get up there.”
Curry finished with 29 points and a season-high 13 assists in a 126-119 Warriors loss. The Warriors won his minutes by 12 and lost the minutes he sat by 19.
Sunday night’s jam was Curry’s 27th dunk of his career. His career-high in a season was seven, in his 2015-16 unanimous MVP campaign.
Curry remembers the last time he jammed — “Of course I do,” he said. It was Feb. 21, 2019, and he cut baseline, caught a bounce pass from Kevin Durant and dunked with two hands.
Coincidentally, Curry also threw down a sick dunk to end the 2019 All-Star Game, bouncing himself an alley-oop lob and finishing with a reverse.
“I was in high school,” Moses Moody said.
Curry went 334 regular season games between Saturday’s dunk and that 2019 one. Curry does finish his individual workouts with dunks and Moody said he’s even seen him windmill before, but the Sixers slam could be it for Curry’s high-flying days.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good,” Curry said. “Dealing with knee stuff all year, but got to take advantage of a cherry-pick opportunity. That will probably be my last dunk, though. I’m calling it right now. That was the last one you’re going to see.”
