yesha Curry and Stephen Curry attend the 2022 ESPYs at Dolby Theatre on July 20, 2022
Ayesha and Steph Curry.
Ayesha Curry shared on the Call Her Daddy podcast that she advised her future husband, Steph Curry, to turn down the NBA Draft in 2009
At the time, Steph still had a year of college left and Ayesha told him to stay in school
Steph went the other way, joining the Golden State Warriors and going on to lead the team to four championship wins
If Steph Curry had followed his future wife Ayesha Curry’s teenage advice, he would have skipped the NBA draft.
The Golden State Warriors point guard was drafted back in 2009 when he was a junior in college. At the time, he was dating Ayesha and deciding whether to make the leap to the NBA.
“He had a big decision to make because he had a year, he had a senior year left,” Ayesha explained on the Wednesday, Aug. 20 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast. “So it was like, do I stay? Do I go? And like, think what a lot of people don't know is he really thought about it. It was like a torment for him.”
Ayesha Curry posts a photo of a young her and Steph Curry onto Instagram
Ayesha Curry posts a photo of a young her and Steph Curry onto Instagram
Ayesha, who now shares four children with Steph, said her future husband “called me crying behind a tree” admitting, “I don’t know what to do.”
The aspiring actress said she didn’t necessarily give Steph the best advice at the time.
“I was like, ‘Stay in school,’ ” Ayesha said, explaining that her background led her to prioritize education.
“I didn't grow up surrounded by people who went to college,” she said. “That for me was like, 'Wow, what a blessing.' Like you get to go to college, you get to have an education, why would you leave? And then not coming from that sports background and understanding how rare the opportunity he had was, I was like, ‘Yeah. Stay at school.’ ”
Ayesha Curry, Riley Curry and Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors poses for a portrait with the Larry O'Brien trophy after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game Six of the 2015 NBA Finals on June 16, 2015
Ayesha Curry, Riley Curry and Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors poses for a portrait with the Larry O'Brien trophy after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game Six of the 2015 NBA Finals on June 16, 2015
The longtime loves first met at church in North Carolina when they were teenagers, and reconnected years later in 2008. Ayesha had moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in modeling and acting, while Steph was in town for the ESPYs.
“I genuinely didn't pay attention to [sports] because I grew up in such an arts-driven family that sports outside of, like, Doug Flutie playing for the Buffalo Bills, like, wasn't a thing in my house,” Ayesha explained.
Ayesha added that she never anticipated that the future NBA star would go on to have a professional basketball career.
The couple recently celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary. They are now parents to daughters Riley, 13, and Ryan, 10, and sons Canon, 7, and Caius, 1.
Steph, who is a two-time MVP and the four-time NBA champion, recently admitted that despite his impressive career, he still doubts himself.
“I’m human like everybody,” Curry told CNBC in June. “You have doubts about yourself, or you have impostor syndrome at times.”
"It's beyond my wildest dreams to push a record that far," he told ESPN, adding that he didn’t think the record was "realistic."