'My Naive Self Was Looking at the Ref': Steph Curry Recalls Kobe Bryant Handing Him His ‘Welcome to the NBA’ Moment

Steph Curry appeared last night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and his guest spot was a lot of fun. Fallon and he talked about their experience at the Paris Olympics, where Steph was the hero for Team USA and the late night host had a courtside seat. They also laughed about the one time that Steph dunked last year, a rare feat that hadn’t happened in a while.

Steph was there mainly to promote his new book, Shot Ready, which is full of images and lessons that he’s learned throughout his life and career. The book was released on Tuesday.

Fallon talked about the great stories that are in the book, and he brought up one in particular about one of Steph’s meetings with Kobe Bryant.

“That was kind of my ‘Welcome to the NBA moment,'” Steph said. “Preseason game, I got switched onto him, and he was giving me those body blows with his elbow.”

“My naive self was looking at the ref like asking for a call. Like they’re gonna give me a call over Kobe Bryant. And then he caught the ball and did a little left shoulder fadeaway and ran down the court, and I was like, ‘Alright, alright, welcome to the NBA,'” he reminisced.

Steph got his revenge three years later.

“I hit a shot on him at the top of the key, and that was kind of his passing the torch moment back to me,” Steph said. “He kind of gave me a little pat on the way back down the court. So yeah, it was kind of cool to get the initiation and then get the torch passed.”

Kobe had huge respect for Steph

Kobe was known for his legendary work ethic and for how seriously he took the game. He saw those same attributes in Steph. “I see a calmness about him,” he once said of the Warriors sharpshooter. “There’s a serious calmness about him, which is extremely deadly, because he’s not up, he’s not down, he’s not contemplating what just happened before, or worry about what’s to come next.”

“He’s just there. And when a player has the skills, and has trained himself to have the skills to juke, shoot, dribble left, right, etc., and then you mix that with this calmness and poise, then you have a serious, serious problem on your hands. And so when I watch him play, that’s what I see,” Kobe had said about the Warriors star.

The end of Kobe’s career overlapped with the beginning of Steph’s career. In total, they faced each other 15 times, with Kobe’s Lakers coming out on top in nine of those games. Steph more than held his own though, as he averaged 22.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 7.3 assists compared to Kobe’s 26.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

Steph actually had the highest-scoring game in those meetings, as although Kobe twice put up 44 points against him, Steph once hung 47 on him in 2013.

Now Steph is the old veteran, and like Kobe before him, he’s not ready to go down without a fight. He told The Today Show yesterday (he’s really making the rounds), “Being able to extend your prime, I’m going into year 17 and really have this belief that I can be at the top of my game again and win at the highest level, so I’m just trying to squeeze the most out of it ’til it’s all over.”