Stephen Curry jokes that he couldn’t see clearly during when he was winning all of his NBA titles, but it was no laughing matter.
The Warriors superstar opened up about a rare eye condition he learned he had back in 2018, which was causing problems with his vision.
“It was 2018, and I didn’t know I was really dealing with crazy blurred vision or distorted images — it was just the way that I saw things, and we compensated around it,” Curry tells PEOPLE.
Warriors general manager at the the time Bob Myers was watching Stpeh on a road game broadcast when he noticed something odd.
“He texted me after the game because apparently the telecast kept showing me when I was on the bench, and he was like, ‘You’re just squinting, looking like you couldn’t see anything. Have you gotten your eyes checked? You should probably go do that because that wasn’t normal,’” Curry said.
He admitted he “thought it was going to be nothing” when he met with an optometrist shortly after Myers’ request.
But it wasn’t.
“They told me that I had a rare condition called Keratoconus, the irregular-shaped cornea that obviously leads to blurriness, distorted images. What I found out about it was it’s a progressive condition that can deteriorate your vision over time and it’s irreversible if it goes in the wrong direction.”
Curry makes light of the situation now, but it could have turned into a very serious issue.
As it turns out, the NBA superstar couldn’t see clearly while he was winning those titles. “I joke that when I’m all done, my memoir should be called The Whole Time I Couldn’t See,” Curry says with a laugh.
“You’re having to process more than you probably need to without that clarity of focus,” he adds.
The 38-year-old now wears contacts, has a treatment plan and gets his eyes checked every six months and he’s encouraging others to do the same.
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