Steph Curry Is Ruining The Youth Of America

In case the headline above wasn't an indication, I am familiar with the concept of clickbait. However - semantically speaking - this isn't an example of it, and even if it was....gotcha bitch!

Anyway, I am not trying to tell you that Steph Curry is ruining the youth of America in the same way that every white person over 70 that still writes letters to the editor is convinced that Cam Newton is ruining the youth of America. I think Steph Curry is ruining the way that the next generation views the game of basketball, and I got a first hand view of it when I played a pickup game at a high school graduation party this past weekend. 

Obviously, a meaningless game played between friends isn't indicative of the entire state of kid's hoops, but it did give me a rather keen look into what may be to come. I play two games and with the amount of shots taken from within the 3-point arch you would swear that a lay-up was punishable by death. I stood - hand raised - in the post with a teenager that was 100 pounds soaking wet on my back, and the only time the kid running the point looked at me was to shoot me a glare like I had shed trou and was asking for him to massage my thighs.

I don't even care if this sounds like a "kids these days" blog, because the second a snot-nosed teen looked me in the eye, confidently said "CURRY!" in a completely un-ironic way, and proceeded to send an errant 25 foot fadeaway careening off the backboard I knew I had to write this blog. Steph Curry has every shitty little asshole with a Spalding thinking that the only baskets that count are made from the nearest parking lot. I can't even imagine what that means for the watchability of AAU tournaments. If high schoolers are letting a 30 year old that hasn't played competitive basketball since he was unaware of what a vagina felt like introduce them to mid range jump shots and interior ball fakes then we might be sentenced to a future in which J.R. Smith's efficiency is the prototype for success.