Stephen Curry's NBA career got off to a worrying start.
While the Warriors guard flashed the star potential that made him the No. 7 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft early and often, he spent the first three seasons of his career battling ankle injuries.
Curry's ankle issues earned him comparisons to Grant Hill, a Hall of Famer whose prime was cut short due to ankle injuries. Former Warriors general manager Bob Myers once said that he had never seen someone sprain their ankle in the "nontraditional, crazy ways" Curry did and that he hasn't seen it since.
Here's how Curry's ankle injuries impacted the start of his NBA career and how he overcame them to become an all-time great.
MORE: Subscribe to Apple TV to watch Stephen Curry: Underrated
Stephen Curry ankle injury timeline
2009-10 season
March 17, 2010: Curry misses the first game of his rookie season due to a sprained left ankle. While he is seen wearing a walking boot, he is listed as day-to-day.
March 20, 2010: Curry returns from a two-game absence. He scores nine points on 4-for-10 shooting in 25 minutes of action.
April 14, 2010: The Warriors end their season with a win over the Trail Blazers.
Curry appears in 80 of a possible 82 games, posting averages of 17.5 points, 5.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds. He finishes second in Rookie of the Year voting behind Tyreke Evans and earns a spot on the All-Rookie First Team alongside Evans, Brandon Jennings, Darren Collison and Taj Gibson.
2010-11 season
Oct. 29, 2010: After spraining his right ankle in a preseason game and aggravating it in Golden State's season-opening win over Houston, Curry reinjures his ankle in the second game of his sophomore season.
Curry exits the game with 6:03 remaining in the third quarter and does not return.
"It's more rehab; that's all that means," Curry said. "Just got to be smart about it now and try to get it back to 100 percent and get it stronger so that even if I do step on somebody's foot I can recover.
"We'll find out tomorrow and see how it reacts."
Nov. 5, 2010: Curry scores 20 points in a win over the Jazz after sitting out two straight games with a sprained right ankle.
Dec. 8, 2010: Curry exits Golden State's loss to San Antonio in the second quarter with a right ankle sprain. He's helped off the floor by his teammates and does not return. X-rays come back negative.
Dec. 25, 2010: The Warriors get Curry back for their Christmas Day meeting with the Trail Blazers. He scores only four points on 2-for-15 shooting, but he dishes out 11 assists in the win.
Curry had missed the previous six games with his ankle injury.
April 13, 2011: Curry plays in Golden State's last game of the season. He wraps his sophomore campaign with averages of 18.6 points, 5.8 assists and 3.9 rebounds over 74 games.
May 25, 2011: Over a month after Golden State's regular season comes to an end, it's announced that Curry underwent surgery on his right ankle in Charlotte, North Carolina. The injury cost Curry a total of eight games in the 2010-11 season.
2011-12 season
Dec. 26, 2011: Curry rolls his surgically repaired ankle in a matchup with Derrick Rose and the Bulls in the second game of the season. He undergoes X-rays after the game, which reveal no break.
It's the second time Curry has sprained his ankle in seven days.
Dec. 28, 2011: Curry doesn't play against the Knicks due to a sore right ankle. Him sitting is said to be a precautionary measure.
Jan. 4, 2012: In his third game since returning from injury, Curry sprains his right ankle again.
Jan. 20, 2012: Playing with a heavily taped ankle, Curry scores 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting after sitting out eight straight games.
Feb. 22, 2012: Curry strains a tendon in his right foot in the first quarter of Golden State's win over Phoenix, limiting him to 10 minutes of play.
Feb. 28, 2012: The Warriors are without Curry in their first game back from All-Star Weekend due to a strained tendon in his right foot.
Feb. 29, 2012: Warriors head coach Mark Jackson inserts Curry in the final seconds of a close game against the Hawks to use him as a decoy. David Lee scores a layup on the possession to give the Warriors the lead.
March 5, 2012: After sitting out three of four games and playing only three seconds in the game he appeared in, Curry returns to score 12 points in nine minutes against the Wizards.
March 11, 2012: Curry plays against the Clippers despite being a game-time decision with a "mildly" sprained right ankle. Jackson pulls him from the game after nine scoreless minutes.
"I just felt it wasn't right to throw him out there," Jackson said. "He looked like he was gutting it out. We were up 17 at the time, and I told him: 'If we can't close this out, then we don't deserve to win.'"
It's the last game Curry would play in the 2011-12 season.
April 25, 2012: Curry undergoes surgery on his right ankle. The Warriors announce that the procedure "revealed a stable ankle with no structural damage and consisted of cleaning out loose debris and scar tissue."
Sept. 20, 2012: Following an examination of his ankle, Curry receives full medical clearance to resume all basketball-related activities, the team announces.
Oct. 31, 2012: Curry signs a four-year, $44 million extension with the Warriors ahead of his fourth season. The deal is immediately viewed as a possible discount.
"Obviously, if you look at other people in my draft class or other people with comparable stats, I might be below their pay grade, but I'm not really concerned with that," said Curry. "I could potentially be underpaid. I just don't want to be that guy who is overpaid. That's my mission."
Through three seasons, Curry averaged 17.5 points, 5.8 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game. He appeared in 180 of a possible 230 games.
How Stephen Curry overcame ankle issues to become NBA superstar
There were concerns that the ankle surgery Curry underwent following the 2011-12 season was going to be much more intrusive than it ended up being.
As detailed by Pablo S. Torre for ESPN, a set of stress X-rays conducted while Curry was midsleep ruled out structural damage to the ligaments in his right ankle. Instead, it revealed "thick, sticky bands of scar tissue" described as crab meat, as well as "inflamed tissue, bone spurs and chips of cartilage."
To anyone else, orthopedic seafood might be revolting. To Curry, "it was good news," he says. "The least intrusive outcome." A motorized device called a shaver scraped and vacuumed all of it away in less than 90 minutes. No zombie tendons necessary. Projected recovery time: three to four months.
In addition to the surgery, Curry altered his training under the guidance of Warriors performance director Keke Lyles. The biggest change? Strengthening his hips and glutes, not just his ankles. The goal was to "load his hips to help unload his ankles."
Initially, Curry was able to deadlift — a weight-lifting exercise that works the glutes and helps improve hip mobility — between 200 and 225 pounds, per Torre. After a year in Lyles' program, he could deadlift up to 400 pounds, which was the second-most on the Warriors behind only Festus Ezeli, a 6-11 and 265-pound center.
"Steph became more aware of how he needs to take care of his body," his father, Dell Curry, told ESPN. "It helped him understand that his body is his career."
