Golden

February 27, 2017
Thompson, a columnist for the Mercury News and East Bay Times, frequently gets up-close looks at Curry, the cherubic scoring savant for the Golden State Warriors, who is just entering the prime of his basketball career at age 28. Examining a still-active sports figure is difficult; Thompson mostly manages it by detailing Curry’s relentless drive. Curry went from getting zero scholarship offers from major colleges to being an NBA lottery pick. After two NBA MVP awards, Curry still endures punishing off-season workouts and keeps giving his trainer more to work on. Unfortunately, Thompson never finds the balance between tone and content, stumbling into game recaps and observations on his subject that can be overwrought (“ are tools for revenge, to announce his superiority”), simplistic (“He makes the kind of shots people daydream about”), or dossier-dull statistical. He fails to unite the disparate themes to profile a new kind of athletic superstar, a devout, humble family man who turned craftiness and outside shooting into sexy, marketable qualities.

March 1, 2017
A hagiographic look at an NBA star with a lot of career ahead of him.Steph Curry is a bona fide superstar. The point guard for the Golden State Warriors has won two MVP awards and has led his team to consecutive NBA Finals appearances, winning in 2015 and losing in a heartbreaking seven-game series to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. He is also largely responsible for the resurrection of the Warriors, who languished near the bottom of the league for years. "Worse than being bad, worse than being onto something and blowing it on the biggest stage, the Warriors were irrelevant," writes Bay Area News Group sports columnist Thompson. Now, the Warriors are once again at the top of the Western Conference this season, and there is a case to be made that Curry is the greatest three-point shooter in league history. Furthermore, he is charismatic and compelling, with a beautiful family and a great back story: the son of a former NBA star who attended a midmajor school, Davidson, far more well known for academics than for athletics. By all accounts, he is a genuinely good guy. So this book, about one of the NBA's biggest and most marketable stars, is not surprising. However, this treatment of an athlete with many years to go before retirement feels opportunistic. To be sure, the author is a fine journalist with sound insight into the NBA and especially Curry and the Warriors, a team he has covered for many years, but the book is so laden with praise that at times it reads like an extended press release. Fans of the Warriors and especially of Curry will enjoy the book, which has its virtues in terms of depth and insight, but the rest can wait until Curry's career is over for a more fully fleshed and less-adulatory biography.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 15, 2017

Sportswriter Thompson (Mercury News) recounts the ascent of basketball superstar Stephen "Steph" Curry (b. 1988), who has eclipsed many of his older peers by winning back-to-back NBA MVP awards as well as a championship with the Golden State Warriors. The son of former NBA player Dell Curry, Steph came to national attention by leading Davidson College to two NCAA tournaments. As the point guard entered the NBA, a lack of playing time and ankle injuries hindered his development and reinforced critics, who dismissed him as too undersized to compete against stronger point guards. These criticisms and struggles only motivated Curry, whose mastery of the three-pointer has allowed him to shoot over the top of defensive players from as far away as half court. Thompson credits Curry's popularity to his everyman quality, attributing the animosity he receives to his wholesome image. The author provides insight into Curry's Christian faith and his personal relationships, primarily with his wife, Ayesha. VERDICT Despite Curry's popularity, this biography will quickly become out of date. Recommended for libraries where Curry and the Golden State Warriors have large fan bases.--Chris Wilkes, Tazewell Cty. P.L., VA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.