AKRON, Ohio — Four-time NBA champion and Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry recently received the Ambassador of Golf Award from the Kaulig Companies Championship, PGA TOUR Champions, and Northern Ohio Golf Charities Foundation. The basketball legend visited Firestone Country Club in his birthplace (yes, birthplace) of Akron this weekend to accept the award and host an event with 96 junior golfers in partnership with UNDERRATED Golf.
Curry, 35, truly has been ambassador for the sport, even fully funding men's and women's golf at Howard University for several years. As he visited Akron for only the second time since his birth in 1988, 3News sports anchor Nick Camino got an exclusive opportunity to go one-on-one with the two-time MVP at Firestone to talk about his love for golf, the four consecutive Finals matchups against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, as well as his impact on the game of basketball. You can watch the full interview in the player above.
"Going into my 15th year in the NBA, I feel like I've got a lot left to accomplish there on the court and a lot left in the tank," Curry said. "But the golf, the offseason is golf season for me."
Curry, an avid golfer, reflected with Camino on what he wishes went differently in the 2016 NBA Finals that the Cavs stormed back to win after falling behind 3-1 in the championship series, as well as his unique connection to Akron and Northeast Ohio and being revered as perhaps the greatest shooter in the history of basketball.
"It is special to even just be at this iconic place [at] Firestone, where some much history in the game has been experienced here," he added. "Tiger [Woods] winning eight times, the shot he hit in the dark, all the who's who, the list of champions that have won here, too, so it is special."
Also, who would be with Curry in his dream foursome?
"Tiger, probably President Obama, [and] I'll throw Jack Nicklaus in there, too," he said. "President Obama, me and him would be teammates against those guys, and we'd just get all the strokes in the world and we'd beat them."
This upcoming week, Firestone Country Club will host the Champions Tour for the Kaulig Companies Championship starting on Thursday, which will feature defending champion Jerry Kelly as well as former PGA stars like Steve Stricker, John Daly, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie, Kenny Perry, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Rocco Mediate, Bernhard Langer, David Toms, Y.E. Yang. and Ernie Els.