For basketball fans living in 2008, Stephen Curry was little more than a whisper before he carried the Davidson Wildcats on a magical March ride that ended one shot short of the Final Four. People had heard he could shoot it, people knew he was Dell Curry’s kid, but most people had never seen him play. A little over a decade later, it seems absurd that Curry could have made it all the way to the end of his sophomore season in college with this being the case.
Ja Morant became a college basketball rock star with these 3 moments
Much has changed since Stephen Curry’s memorable March run of 2008, and players like Murray State’s star have benefitted from that change.
For so many reasons, Murray State sophomore Ja Morant’s situation should mirror Curry’s 11 years ago.
Morant was a lightly recruited two-star prospect coming out of high school whose only power conference offer came from South Carolina in the 11th hour of the process. He plays for a program whose only shot at a consistent national television presence is a string of postseason wins. When the NCAA tournament tips off Thursday, his Racers will be a double-digit seed (12) that only made the field of 68 because they were able to win their league tournament.
And yet, Morant doesn’t need a deep run in the NCAA tournament to solidify his household name status the way Curry did back in ‘08. He’s already there.
People know Morant is a projected top-five pick in this summer’s NBA Draft according to pretty much everyone who closely follows the thing. People know Morant is on pace to become the first player in college basketball history to average at least 20 points and 10 assists per game over an entire season. People know that if Murray State is playing in a nationally televised game, they’d better race over to the TV and enjoy the two-hour show.
And when Murray State is playing but the game isn’t on national television? Well, if Morant does something wild, the highlights will be on social media in no time.
Seeing is the difference. Every now and then we had a chance to catch a glimpse of Curry before he went fully mainstream. With Morant, you would have to had to have gone out of your way to not see his artistry on social media at some point over the last four months.
[Catch up: Ja Morant’s NBA Draft rise, explained]
Three moments in particular took Ja Morant from a name people knew because they read it on the internet to a name everyone was telling their friends about.
Nov. 26, 2018 — The Alabama dunk
Murray State may have lost at Alabama in its fourth game of the season, but the biggest takeaway nationally from the game were the 38 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds produced by Morant.
Two points in particular stood out.
Also, I’m pretty sure that dunks will play at least a small role in Morant making some decent change playing this game. And if they don’t, well, he was still the nation’s leader in assists by a healthy margin.
Jan. 10, 2019 — The UT-Martin dunk
This was the one. If you weren’t fully sold on Morant or had just sort of forgotten about him, this was the one that sent you to the other side for good.
The craziest thing about this dunk is that it was EVERYWHERE almost immediately after it happened, and an addendum to the dunk became that in the same game, Morant set a school and conference record with 18 assists. If you hadn’t seen the dunk, you probably wouldn’t have heard about the assists.
Jan. 17, 2019 — The Eastern Illinois dunk
Striking while the iron’s hot is important when it comes to cementing your spot in the public’s collective conscious. Just a week after the 6’3 Morant fully jumped over a dude for a one-handed cram, he did this on a fast break against Eastern Illinois.
The last vestiges of a world where Morant wasn’t a known commodity were wiped away forever.
For some people, 95 percent (or more) of the footage they’ve seen of Morant have been dunk videos like these. But even for that contingent, the videos have at least made them somewhat aware of the fact that Morant has put up some outrageous assist numbers this year and that he can shoot it a little bit. Those 10-second highlight plays open the door to a level of national awareness that wouldn’t have been possible for a college basketball player in Morant’s position even fairly recently.
Would a deep run in the NCAA tournament improve Morant’s brand and overall visibility even more? Sure, but he doesn’t need that boost to get to the place he appears to be in the process of heading. If this were 2008 and Morant was preparing to get his first taste of March Madness, the story would be much different.
Even so, here’s to Morant playing deep into the NCAA tournament. If only for our sake.
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