Emily Parker spoke with Marcus Thompson, reporter, sports columnist, and now author of 'Golden', about the faith and skill of basketball star Steph Curry.

Marcus: Yes, I was covering the team; it was 2008, maybe the fall of 2007. I was talking to the general manager of the Golden State Warriors, his name was Larry Riley, and we would often talk about college players and who was good and who he liked. One day he says "Hey, you've got to see this Stephen Curry kid, this kid from Davidson." I said "Whatever, I've seen that kid, he's not very good."

Marcus Thompson (photo: Jordan Jiminez)

Davidson is a really small school; it's not a big time college programme. I normally don't really believe in those players. They score a lot of points and then they get to the NBA and they're not very good.

Then he goes on this crazy run in the tournament and becomes this national star and I didn't believe him. I was like, "Well he's just doing it because he goes to a small school. When he gets to the NBA, he'll see what good really is." That's when I started paying attention to Steph Curry, because the Warriors' general manager loved him and told me I needed to love him too.

Emily: So for those that don't know, what is the NBA and how is it run?

Marcus: The NBA is a professional basketball team, the best in the world, where all of the best basketball players go. There are 30 teams scattered across the country. One of them is in the Bay Area in Oakland, California. It's the league that built Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and some of the great basketball players the world has known. It's the NBA. It's become a global game now.

Emily: Earlier on today, I was watching online some of the top 10 shots that Steph has done. It's undeniable just how skilled he is and how much he's developed as an athlete over the years.

Marcus: It's really incredible too because I've known him since he came into the NBA and now he has all these muscles and he's almost 30. He's a father with two kids.

When I met him, he was a little scrawny kid, with no facial hair; he looked like he was 12. He looked like a kid who was dressing up in a basketball costume, that's how he looked. He didn't look for real. So to see him do this stuff is mind-blowing. How does this little kid in this league of physical specimens and relative giants, how is he able to do this?

He has this mastery of shooting that is unbecoming of normal humans. We all have some kind of understanding of what it's like to shoot something into a basket, whether it's a piece of trash into a wastebasket. This is a challenge. If I put a ball into your hand and a barrel over there, we can turn a carnival into it, of just you trying to put this ball into a basket. We can all relate and we can look at Steph Curry and see how far he does it and have this collective awe because we know that's not the easiest thing in the world to do. He's one of those rare guys who can do it from 35 to 40 feet away. It's just crazy.

Emily: What makes Curry different to other sportsmen that you've met and worked with over the years?

Marcus: Have you ever been in the grocery store, or a restaurant, and some nice guy just starts talking to you? You have a nice conversation and then you leave and it's over. It's like, "Yeah I met that guy, and he was a nice guy." That's Stephen Curry's disposition. That's how he interacts with people, and the uniqueness of that is, he's a millionaire celebrity.

Normally these guys are like, I don't want to say they're all divas, but they have this kind of complex around them. They're rich, they can go anywhere they want, get anything they want, they're beloved and that breeds a certain type of personality.

Steph is much more of a down-to-earth guy. He's a regular guy and when you see him meet people, or hear him talk to people, you don't get the sense that he's this superstar global athlete. He's a dad, he's a husband, he's a son, and he just likes people.

It's a really refreshing perspective because superstars, especially in America, can be so untouchable. They become a deity of sorts where you don't get to talk to them. You don't get to interact with them. If you do, it's on terms that are of superiority where you understand that they are a star and you understand you're lucky to be in their presence.