Three years ago, Sonya Curry devised a way to motivate her son Stephen Curry to take better care of the basketball.
The scheme was hatched after Sonya became frustrated with how much Stephen was turning the ball over. She consulted with her husband Dell Curry, who knows a thing or two about being a guard in the NBA, to figure out what a fair number of turnovers per game would be and the couple eventually settled on three. For each turnover above the the third, Steph would be fined $100 by Sonya.
If Steph had less than three turnovers, then that would be subtracted from his total.
At the end of the season, Steph would have to buy his mom whatever accessories she wanted with the money that she had accrued through Steph’s turnovers throughout the season.
For his part, Curry loves the extra challenge that the fine system provides him:
“It keeps me on the edge every game,” he said. “I know she’s going to text me or have some witty one-liner about what she’s going to buy with all of my gifts.”
So, what does the damage look like? Mike Prada of SB Nation ran the numbers on Sonya’s fine system and calculated how much money Steph owed his mom for each season.
2012-13: $1,200
2013-14 (including playoffs): $7,600
2014-15 (so far): $600
That’s… a good amount of handbags right there. But hey, at least Curry has really cut down on his turnovers as compared to last year, right?
