Stephen Curry’s full-court video was a fake, but it speaks to his superpowers that we weren’t sure at first

Back in 2002, Powerade released a commercial in which Michael Vick could be “seen” throwing a football clear out of a stadium. You knew it was fake. It had to be. Editing wasn’t that great back then. And yet, for a very brief second, you actually had to entertain the possibility that the video, the feat, was real. That’s how superhuman Vick seemed at the time. That’s how strong of an arm he had. It was borderline cartoonish. 

That’s Stephen Curry nowadays. A truly superhuman shooter seemingly capable of anything with a ball and a basket. Back in 2020 a video surfaced in which Curry could be seen making an absurd 105 straight corner 3-pointers at the Warriors‘ practice facility. If that was anyone else in that video, my first thought would’ve been: “that has to be fake.” But it was Curry. He’s an alien. So I believed it. 

But this latest Curry video making the social media rounds is a bridge too far. If you haven’t seen it yet, on Sunday night Sports Illustrated put out a video of Curry making five straight full-court shots. Have a look for yourself:

This is pretty convincing, I have to admit. Editing has certainly improved since the days of Vick chucking that ball into outer space. But there’s just no way. Even for Curry, this is too ridiculous. Five straight full-court heaves? They could’ve at least tried to make it believable. Maybe he makes two in a row. Or banks one in. Stroking five straight, dead center, is too much. 

FYI, this video is from the same magician editor, Ari Fararooy, who brought you this:

So, yeah … don’t be a sucker. But in case you were, the Warriors confirmed it wasn’t real. 

Again, it speaks to Curry’s greatness that we actually had to research this thing and start finding other fake videos that had similarly yanked our chains in order to completely disprove something that we knew, in the most logical corners of our brain, even before the Warriors confirmed as much, could not possibly be real. But let’s come back to earth here. I’ll believe just about anything Curry does with a basketball in his hands, but this was a bridge too far from the start.