On finding your own leadership style
As I look back from when I started playing AAU basketball when I was 9 to now, I have the same personality. I love to have fun, I love to smile, I love to crack jokes, and keep it light no matter what room I’m in … I always knew that was kind of my disposition and my personality, that’s what I was comfortable with.
… There comes a certain expectation that from a leadership standpoint that sometimes you have to be the most vocal and demonstrative. … You don’t have to be anybody but yourself.
There are a lot of different ways that leadership presents itself. I feel like I have a blend of a couple factors where I try to lead by example – like putting in the most time, having the hardest work ethic – and showing people what it means to be committed to winning, doing everything that you can to get better every single year and not settling.
I can show it better than I can say it … But I’m also pretty selective when I do speak. I’m not the loudest guy in the room. When I do say something hopefully it commands attention and has a presence about it. You might walk in the room and you might not hear me, you might just see me grinding, and that’s OK in a certain sense.
You talk about Draymond, he has a totally different approach that works for him because of who he is and what his personality is like and what makes us better as a team.
… You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror every day and say, ‘Did I do everything that I could to not only make myself better but everyone around me?’ That doesn’t mean it’s something tangible, it’s just a feeling that you have.
On overcoming adversity during games
It is probably one of the hardest things to do because there has to be a level of sacrifice of that specific game, possibly, that would be instrumental in changing that player’s perceptive on dealing with failure.
When I was a freshman in college, my coach, Bob McKillop, he put me out there. It was very first game. I had all the confidence in the world, I was playing Division 1 basketball and starting my first freshman game. In the first half I had nine turnovers.
Coach McKillop had a decision at that point … Pull me and hopefully minimize the damage and maybe go after the win? Or to keep me out there and keep staying in my ear to help me see the picture right? But even if I didn’t get me that game, his words and his actions were going to help me that next game and the game after that and it would be kind of a snowball effect from there.
… Just the big picture of trying to make sure that one moment doesn’t become so defeating that they’re scared to take risks and to put themselves out there. At the end of the day, win or lose, as long as you gave your best effort, you’ll be alright.
Curry finished that game with 13 turnovers, but Davidson managed to hold on to get the 81-77 win over Eastern Michigan.
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