College star Curry ready for bigger stage of NBA

DAVIDSON, N.C. — As Stephen Curry fought back tears in announcing he was skipping his senior season at Davidson, he was convinced he'd be selected in the top 20 of the NBA draft.

At his first pre-draft workout with Charlotte a month later, Curry thought he'd crack the top 14, while openly lobbying to be taken by New York eighth overall.

Fast forward to the week of the draft and a confident Curry sat in a conference room steps away from the Davidson court where he became the nation's leading scorer and indicated he's hearing he could go as high as No. 2 overall.

The skinny, sweet-shooting guard who captivated the nation by nearly leading unheralded Davidson to the 2008 Final Four has won over the NBA, too.

"It's kind of surreal, actually, to think how much I've benefited from those workouts," Curry said. "Just getting out and playing against the best in the draft and doing well and competing hard, really I guess impressed a lot of people."

Curry has shot to the top of draft boards partly due to squashing erroneous scouting reports, a savvy pre-draft plan with the help of his ex-NBA player dad, a hot-shooting month, and a personality and knowledge of the game that wins over a room.

His father, Dell, who spent 16 seasons in the NBA as a 3-point specialist, believes his son's quick ascension started when he was measured at the NBA combine in Chicago.

Now an executive with the Bobcats, Dell Curry chuckles at how teams weren't convinced that Curry had indeed grown to 6-foot-3 after a late growth spurt in college.

"I've done some scouting here with the Bobcats and I always found a way where I could get to stand pretty close to a player, that's a good way for me to tell his exact height," he said. "A lot of scouts must have not done that because they still had Steph listed as 6-1.

"Definitely his size and his strength catapulted him up the draft. Then you sit down and talk to him and find out what kind of kid he is and how much he loves playing the game."

Bobcats coach Larry Brown marveled at his basketball IQ, but perhaps a more telling sign was a day after his workout for Charlotte. As Brown and Curry's father watched another set of draft prospects, Curry sat in the first row of the stands — with a laptop — working on a paper for a summer class he's taking at Davidson.