Steph Curry, Warriors help give Oregon teen special night

Stephen Curry has frequently spoken about being a role model for good all throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy career.

In his first regular season game after winning the MVP of the NBA’s all-star game, Curry and the Warriors were able to set up a meeting with Matthew Spellman, a high school basketball player from Rockaway Beach, Oregon who overcame cerebral palsy to become a varsity player.

Over all-star weekend, The Oregonian wrote about Spellman’s path to making the varsity team and all he overcame — born three months premature, with brain damage that led doctors to tell his parents he’d never be able to walk. Spellman said Curry was a big fan of Curry ever since Curry was selected by the Warriors in 2009, following Golden State from one state north ever since.

The Oregonian said Curry and the Warriors saw the piece ahead of Thursday’s game in Portland and helped treat Spellman to a first-class experience, getting Spellman seats on the baseline to watch Curry’s renowned warm-up drills and setting up a postgame meeting between Curry, Spellman and his family.

After dropping 18 points and 14 assists in the Warriors’ 132-95 win over the Blazers, Curry chatted with Spellman and signed multiple autographs for him and his family, and The Oregonian wrote Curry was the one who suggested they take pictures together. Spellman’s mom Cheryl told Curry that he “have made his life.”

“It was awesome,” Spellman said to The Oregonian. “I don’t even know. I can’t describe it. It was a good time. I had a great time at the game. I can’t believe I met Steph.”

It doesn’t surprise Curry, at this point, that he has fans all over the world who grew up idolizing him, but it’s clear that it’s a responsibility he takes seriously. After scoring 50 points on 16 3-pointers to win the MVP trophy in Cleveland last Sunday, Curry went on NBA TV’s “Inside the All-Star Game” show and was asked by Isiah Thomas about what it means to be the “face of the league” and impacting the sport. Curry’s answer:

“It’s also like the total package of what you do on the court, how you impact the next generation of basketball players that are coming in,” Curry said. “How basketball has a much farther reach outside of the 94 feet in terms of impacting communities, giving back, changing narratives in society, all of those type of things. If I can be representative of that? Nobody’s perfect, but [if I can] be as close to the full package in terms of taking advantage and leveraging all of those for some amazing change and good things, then I’m going to keep doing it.

“Basketball is such a vehicle for a lot of amazing things. It’s changed my life, obviously. And I want to keep doubling down on that and honoring that position, for sure.”

Curry did that again on Thursday night. It wasn’t the first time — and it’s easy to bet that it won’t be the last time, either.