By Walter Dubowec

The name that everyone is talking about so far during this year’s March Madness tournament is none other than Toronto’s own (sort-of) Stephen Curry of small Davidson College.

Long-time Raptor fans remember a young Stephen on the floor of the Air Canada Centre before almost every Raptor game. After the likes of Vince Carter, Antonio Davis and Alvin Williams would finish their pre-game shootaround, a youngster named Stephen Curry would step on the court and shoot and shoot and shoot.

And he was good – real good! Stephen was the little kid who seemingly never missed a shot.

                    
                                   Like father - like son!

Back in 2000, I recall asking one of my associates at MLSE “who is that kid?” The answer was, “he’s the son of the Toronto Raptors’ three point specialist, Dell Curry”.

If there ever was a kid who had inherited his Dad’s dead-eye shooting ability, it was Stephen. Young Stephen would throw up the ball with a two handed set shot and more often than not, it was nothing but net!

He could sink them up close and from downtown. It was remarkable to see a young kid shoot like he could. More often than not, he wore a Raptors #30 jersey over his t-shirt.

From the ages of around 10 to 13, Stephen Curry called Toronto home. In fact, in an interview with Chuck Swirsky, he said he returns to Toronto to visit friends every summer. He loves the city and has many fond memories of growing up in Toronto.

After Dell retired from the Raptors, he moved his family back to Charlotte, where Stephen starred in high school ball. He fully expected to play college ball with a top ACC school.

At only 5’11”, 160 lbs., most ACC schools thought Curry was too small and fragile, so they passed on him. Since Curry's father played for Virginia Tech, Curry wanted to play for the Hokies, but they only offered him a walk-on. Stephen only had offers from Davidson College, Virginia Commonwealth, and Winthrop. In the end, Curry chose Davidson College, a school who had not won an NCAA Tournament game since 1969.

Then a growth spurt hit and Stephen grew 4 inches and added twenty pounds in a little more than a year. As a freshman, he was second only to Kevin Durant of Texas in NCAA scoring.

Well, Davidson's NCAA Tournament fortunes have changed in 2008. First, Curry hit Gonzaga with 40 points in the opening round. He followed that as Davidson dropped No. 2 seed Georgetown in a second-round thriller on Easter Sunday. Curry's 25 second-half points elevated the Wildcats from a seemingly insurmountable 7-point second-half deficit.

No one knows what the future holds for Stephen Curry, but one would assume that he’ll make his mark in the NBA one day. As a Raptor fan, I would love to see Stephen trade his Davidson ‘red’ for Toronto Raptors ‘red’ in the next year or two!