'Birthday for the ages'...11 year old Alabama boy meets NBA star Steph Curry - receives spec
By Paul Gattis | pgattis@al.com The Huntsville Times
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It sounds like one of those credit card commercials. You think about the cost of the tickets and the gas money to the game.
But this is the payoff: Meeting NBA star Steph Curry – "It was awesome," said Huntsville's Tyler Bump.
It's a birthday story for the ages.
Tyler, a fifth-grader at Hampton Cove Elementary, had his 11th birthday on Wednesday. He's a huge fan of Curry – who led the Golden State Warriors to the NBA championship in June and was named the league's MVP last season. And the Warriors just happened to be playing in Memphis on Tyler's 11th birthday.
Wearing a Steph Curry jersey, Tyler went to the game with his father, Steve Bump, classmate Luke Miller and Luke's father Dr. Jason Miller. Tyler's mom, Jodi, made a sign that said "It's my golden birthday. All I want is to meet Steph Curry."
So after the game, while Curry was conducting a courtside interview, Tyler and his dad were waved to the court to, yes, meet Curry.
"We stood under the basket for what seemed like two or three minutes while he did this interview," Steve Bump said. "I had my phone on the ready."
He captured this exchange between Curry and his son on video:
"Hey, what's your name," Curry said.
He then leaned in to hear Tyler's response.
"Tyler, I saw your sign," Curry said. "I had to bring you down here. I've got something for you."
Curry then took off the sneakers he wore during the game, signed them and handed them to Tyler.
"Oh my gosh," Tyler's dad said as he's taking the video.
"There you go, buddy," Curry said as he gave Tyler the shoes. "Nice to meet you, thanks for coming out."
So, yeah, Tyler was pretty much the star at school the next day. He said a teacher even played the video for the class.
"It couldn't have been more perfect," his dad said. "It was awesome."
Steve Bump said they were standing by the tunnel to the Warriors locker room with about 40 other people hoping to get Curry's autograph. At that point, someone with Curry motioned for the Bumps to come down to the court.
"I thought even then he's going to get to shake his hand and get an autograph," his dad said. "When he took his shoes off, both of us were like, 'Are you kidding me?' That was really cool."
Tyler has mentioned to his parents a few weeks ago that meeting Curry was on his bucket list.
"I didn't know he knew what a bucket list was," his dad said. Tyler said Curry was his "favorite athlete."
"He's not cocky and he does things like that for other kids," Tyler said. "And he's a good shooter."