Steph Curry disclosed to Jimmy Kimmel in 2015 why he cultivated the habit of chewing his mouth and according to him, it “kind of calms him down,”, especially at the free-throw line.”
Side Action got more;
Ahead of the NBA Finals we figured we might as well take a deep dive into why exactly he chews on it.
Steph told Jimmy Kimmel back in 2015 that he got elbowed in college and got one after that. But he also said, it “kind of calms him down,” especially at the free-throw line.
There’s a crazy stat about his chewing his mouth guard, per ESPN back in 2016:
According to The Wall Street Journal, Curry shoots free throws better when he’s chewing on his mouthguard. Over the past two regular seasons, he made 92% of his free throws when chewing on the mouthguard, compared to 89% when he kept the mouthguard in place. He also increased the amount of time he chewed on his mouthpiece to 85% of his ’15-16 free throw tries–up 21% from ’14-15.
From Sports Illustrated in 2016:
It’s the new Jordan tongue. And, like Jordan, Curry doesn’t realize when it’s in or out: “Some fan studied it. He said I shoot 2% better on free throws with it out. And I think he’s right. Because when I shoot a free throw with it in, I always go, Whoa, that’s weird. It’s where it’s supposed to be.”
Steph spoke to BSO about possibly staying in games longer when he is hot.
Robert Littal: When you start off that hot, is there an urge to say, hey, I want to roll that into the second quarter, I want to roll that into the fourth quarter, or is it just trusting the rotations and then trying to get that rhythm back when you can come back in?
STEPH CURRY: It’s the latter. But it’s also understanding how the series develops, at most, we got six games left. Make the necessary adjustments.
Like I said it’s about winning four games by any means necessary, and for 42 minutes, we did enough to win a game tonight, and that’s not how basketball works. I think everything starts to come on the table when you look at trying to get ourselves back in the series on Sunday and taking it from there.
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