Upon closer inspection, Stephen Curry did not drain the wild full-court practice sH๏τ that has gone viral in recent days.
Like many NBA stars, the Golden State Warriors guard is known to take some playful, low-percentage sH๏τs during warmups – typically half-court or full-court heaves. And because he’s the most prolific 3-point marksman in NBA history, the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer makes a disproportionately high number of these prayers.
So it came as no surprise last week when Curry appeared to sink a one-armed heave from the Chase Center’s locker room tunnel before a recent game. After seeing the net on the opposite basket flip upward, apparently indicating he’d made the roughly 100-foot attempt, Curry turned towards nearby fans to celebrate the moment and sign a few autographs.
But a closer look at the viral video reveals the only fans who shared Curry’s excitement were on his end of the floor. Meanwhile, those sitting near the opposite basketball didn’t seem to react at all when the ball came in contact with the net.
Now, a second, closer clip from the viral pre-game moment has surfaced, and this one shows the ball falling short of the cylinder.
Several critics suggested the original viral clip was somehow altered with AI to make it appear as though the sH๏τ went in.
Stephen Curry warms up before the game against the Toronto Raptors on March 20
Steph Curry, left, lines up the full-court sH๏τ. Right, a second clip shows the sH๏τ falling short
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‘You can tell it’s fake because the crowd on the right side closest to the basket don’t move or react at all to this,’ one person wrote on X.
‘It’s obviously AI,’ another added.
To be fair, it’s easy to see why the first and second clips seem to have different endings.
Curry’s full-court heave was aimed perfectly. So, when the sH๏τ fell just short of the rim, the netting didn’t move to the left or right, but rather directly upward.
And from far away, the net’s upward motion gave the impression that Curry swished the 100-foot prayer.
‘I feel hoodwinked, bamboozled and led astray,’ one fan joked online after the second video went viral.
One Curry fan became so angered by the second clip they warned the poster to ‘STFU and delete this immediately.’
Curry is currently hitting 39.4 percent of his 3-point attempts on the season, which is impressive but nonetheless below his career mark of 42.3 percent. Regardless, the feared sharpshooter is making a league-high 4.4 3-point attempts per game.
