Basketball fans have been given an intimate look into Stephen Curry’s journey from his early playing career to dominating the NBA, in his new documentary, Underrated.
The special, which is available to stream on Apple TV+ now, offered a glimpse into a side of the 35-year-old that very few have access to – including footage of the athlete studying for his degree, training and enjoying .
Although the dad-of-three has truly cemented his status as one of the greatest players of all time, thanks to his efforts at the Golden State Warriors, the program also shed light on some of his lowest moments, including some of his toughest injuries.
Ryan Coogler, who served as producer on Underrated, spoke to Metro.co.uk about the scenes, admitting that he still gets emotional watching some moments back.
When asked what he found the toughest moment to watch back was, the Black Panther director explained: ‘I think there’s two moments that affect me to the point of tears in the movie.
‘There’s a moment where he’s visited by Coach McKillop and his mom says, “We’ll fatten him up, we’ll get him bigger for you before he arrives.” And the coach says we’ll take him as he is now.
‘That affirmation that what he was was enough… Every time I watched the film, it puts a lump in my throat.
‘The other piece is, just being a Warriors fan, is watching his injuries. Watching him roll his ankle and keep coming down on it. Something about seeing that now, having proof of what he was capable of, it takes me back to those times where we didn’t know how it was going to break.
‘We didn’t know if we were looking at a player whose career was going to be cut short by injury, or if he was ever going to figure it out through luck or sports medicine, if he was ever going to get a chance to get off the runway.
‘So, I think about how it could have broken the other way, and that always makes me very emotional.’
Erick Peyton, who also produced the documentary alongside Ryan, revealed that he still needs to gather himself at seeing Steph’s journey play out.
‘The hardest thing to watch, for me, I’m going to be honest, I still tear up when he cries at the end of the season,’ he continued.
‘I’ve been working with him for a really long time. Stephen is emotional but you never really see him break down like that. You know the work he’s put in.
‘For me, that was that was the moment. It wasn’t necessarily the childhood archival stuff, even though those were touching moments as well.’
Following an incredible college basketball career with Davidson College, Steph joined the Golden State Warriors in 2009 after being picked in the NBA draft, and has gone on to win a string of championships with the team.
Underrated delved into his journey from a young athlete to a four-time NBA champion, while also emphasizing the importance of the bonds in his personal life,
Discussing why it was important to include all aspects of his life, he told us: ‘I think it was important just because you want to have transparency on everything that went into making me the basketball player, the person that I am.
‘That’s not just the work that I put in, that’s the people that I’ve been surrounded with, and blessed to learn from, be coached by. The influence of my parents, my teammates, there are so many people that have been a part of my story that I regularly make sure to acknowledge.
‘But I think throughout the film, you see the recollection of those three amazing college years and that tournament run that we had at Davidson, you hear from different people’s perspectives. It’s amazing to relive it through their eyes.
‘But also, to just understand that it was such a unique time in my life, because you see the finished product, or where I am right now, but not many people knew what the journey was to go through the lumps that I went through in high school and college, to really find out who I was as a basketball player.
‘It opened up the veil on that a little bit. It’s almost 15 years ago that we were in the tournament and trying to make that deep play a tournament run.
‘It’s a nice contrast to how things are now versus what the origin story really was.’
Stephen Curry: Underrated is available to stream now on Apple TV+.
