Much has been made of Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry's deadly accurate 3-point shooting. Tied for second in the NBA in three-point percentage (coincidentally behind his head coach and former sharpshooter Steve Kerr) Curry has shot .455 from behind the arc in his career. However, there's another facet to his game that has shown itself to be as equally dangerous: his dribbling.
Boasting ball handling skills that rival some of the best dribblers in the league, Curry's crossover is so vicious that it has even garnered praise from one of the best ball handlers ever, Allen Iverson. How has it become such a valuable asset to his overall game? Well, despite physical gifts like natural quickness or dexterity, Curry practices.
His unique pre-game dribbling drill has been well-documented. As Bay Area journalist Tim Kawakami notes that we see Curry "dribbling with two hands, getting a feel for the ball, getting a sense of his hands on the leather, getting control of the ball." The routine is fascinating to watch. The basketball dribbling drill is almost hypnotizing, as he dribbles one ball between his legs and and behind his back with one hand while simultaneously doing it with another ball in the other hand.
Though his highlight reel of ankle-breaking moves is largely attributed to his current dribbling drill routine, the reigning NBA MVP doesn't settle when there's always room to improve. Courtesy of CSN Bay Area, Curry is seen in the video below donning a pair of unusual sunglasses that seem to have a tint to them similar to the pair of 3D glasses you'd find in a movie theater. Coupled with a tennis ball, Curry tosses and catches the smaller tennis ball in one hand while dribbling a basketball in the other, all with his vision likely impaired.
Speaking with The Huffington Post, Warriors Vice President of Public Relations Raymond Ridder commented about Curry's dribbling drill, "He can’t see [using those glasses]. He wants to do the drills without much vision."
Though it may seem like an innovative new technique, The Huffington Post's Justin Block points out that what Curry is doing is essentially the same concept of not looking down at the ball that coaches have been drilling into players for decades. "The glasses Curry's wearing essentially block the lower part of your vision, instead focusing the player's perspective on what's happening ahead" writes Block.
Could this be a new drill utilized by more players going forward? Who knows? Regardless of how odd it may look, if Curry is doing stuff like this with relative ease, it's definitely worth a shot right?