Steph Curry doesn't get due respect from high school hoopsters

THE GAME of basketball is being revolutionized by a sharp-shooting, slick-fingered point guard named Wardell.

He goes by his middle name, Stephen, and is more familiar to you and countless young basketball players launching deep three-pointers against their coaches' collective wills, as Steph Curry, the reigning NBA MVP and the best basketball player in the world.

When Curry's Golden State Warriors make the trek to Philadelphia to take on the woeful 76ers on Saturday, fans will flock to the Wells Fargo Center to gawk at his three-point shots.

The three-point shot has been a part of the NBA since the fall of 1979, and sharpshooters like Larry Bird, Reggie Miller and Ray Allen have come and gone. But Curry's style of play - shoot from deep, and shoot often - pushes the shot to an unprecedented level.

All of a sudden, the three-pointer makes contenders and sinks pretenders. Curry slices opposing defenses with regularity, leading the defending NBA champions to the best record in the league this season.

He's also popped up in pop culture, hanging out with Drake at an In-N-Out Burger and appearing in a handful of ESPN promotional commercials.

With each crossover and quick-release three, every pregame dribbling routine and circus shot from the hallway, Curry pushes himself further still into the mainstream conversation.

That all means the crowd for Curry on Saturday will be huge. But just how much has Curry's game captured the imagination of young basketball players?

Of a dozen local high school players interviewed, just one listed Curry as his favorite pro basketball player. Calvary Christian Academy's Joel Thibodeau idolizes the slippery shooter; he and his mother, Gail, made that very clear.

Curry burst on to the scene with Davidson in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, a few years before this generation of high school players paid enough attention to remember his dominant four-game stretch when he scored 128 points for the Wildcats.

"I had to look up the highlights on YouTube," Calvary's Tristan Hahn explained.

At the time, it seemed like an incredible run from a talented player destined to return to earth. Now, he's actively reinventing the game.

Yet, he still polls poorly among today's high schoolers.

Sixers rookie Jahlil Okafor garnered two more votes than Curry in the poll. Roman Catholic star Tony Carr almost cast his vote for Curry, but decided to go with Dwyane Wade.

Still, Carr said he has plenty of respect for the 27-year-old guard, who he thinks has already reached the level of notoriety reserved for legendary names like Michael Jordan and LeBron James.

"I think he's there," Carr said. "I think, once you put in the work he puts in, the consistent work where every game he's getting 35 (points) and 12 (assists) a game, he's breaking records - and then breaking his own records - I feel like he's at a top-notch level right now. He's one of the best point guards of all-time, in my eyes."

A few Calvary players, however, didn't agree with Carr's assessment.

"He probably has four or five years to go until he's on LeBron's level historically," Calvary's Joshua Buck said. His teammates nodded in agreement.

They weren't even ready to concede the mantle of the best three-point shooter in history to Curry. That spot is reserved for Allen, whose status among younger players is likely aided by his timely three-pointer in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals.

So, it turns out Curry may have a ways to go to convince this generation of his excellence.

But his innovation within the game is spreading to gyms across Philadelphia.

In a mid-January game against Archbishop Ryan, Carr's Cahillites were subjected to an onslaught of three-pointers that kept the game closer than expected in the fourth quarter.

Carr himself hit Roman's only three-pointers of the game, both coming from the wing that Curry has frequented so often this season.

But Ryan's Austin Chabot knocked down three straight from behind the arc, including one from the logo in Roman's gym that was reminiscent of Curry's mind-boggling heaves.

Roman squeaked out the win, but Carr talked afterward about how difficult it can be to stop three-point shooters when they get in a rhythm, especially a shooter with Curry's legendary range.

Can you even defend a shot from near midcourt?

"You really can't," Carr said with a grin. "You've just got to hope that they miss."

Meanwhile, across town, Imhotep's Daron Russell passed 1,000 points for his career by burying a three-pointer. And he hit a few more for good measure.

The senior made six of seven attempts from behind the arc in a dominating, 28-point performance, burying opposing Martin Luther King. Imhotep, one of the best teams in the state, knocked down nine of 15 attempts that afternoon.

Be careful telling coaches they should force the issue from deep, though. For all of the emphasis on long shots in the pro game, players said their coaches don't preach more three-point attempts.

Carr said he doesn't actively seek out looks from behind the arc.

"I just let the game come to me," he said. "If I'm open, I'll shoot it. But I don't just go out there and look for them."

Even so, today's game is a hop, skip and jump from the way it used to be played. Post moves are going the way of the dinosaur. Even seven-foot Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis is proficient from deep.

The era of the three-pointer is among us, and Curry is to thank.

Basketball players, young and old, will adapt or die. Curry's going to keep shooting.