Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Golden
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1977
WEBSITE:
CITY: Oakland
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.mercurynews.com/author/Marcus-Thompson-II/ * http://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Marcus-Thompson/2099414275
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1977; married; wife’s name Dawn; children: Sharon.
EDUCATION:Clark Atlanta University, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist and author. Mercury News and East Bay Times, began as beat writer, became sports columnist.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Sports columnist and journalist Marcus Thompson is the author of Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry. Curry is the Golden State Warriors standout guard who has won multiple awards for his playing and a golden reputation for his charitable giving. “While winning back-to-back MVP awards,” explained Ross Atkin in the Christian Science Monitor, “Curry has astounded fans with his ability to quickly and accurately launch shots from long range, [and] win them over with his hard-working, wholesome image.” Thompson, who covered the Golden State Warriors for a decade, said Wes Lukowsky in Booklist, “recounts Steph’s early career, including his amazing college years at Davidson and his early seasons with the Warriors.” “Fans of the Warriors and especially of Curry will enjoy the book, which has its virtues in terms of depth and insight,” declared a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
Thompson’s biography focuses on the growth of Curry’s career—which has come to rival superstar LeBron James. “Part of it was just grasping how big he got, or rather, how big he is,” Thompson said in a CBSLocal Sports interview with Ryan Mayer. “Sometimes, you’re so far into the forest that you don’t see the trees. Steph is just Steph to us out here. He doesn’t have the entourage that prevents you from getting to him. But, when you pull back and view it from a satellite level, you realize that this dude really is big. Part of it is that in the Bay Area, we’re used to the Warriors being underwhelming. So, to see a Warriors player at this height, it’s still kind of odd.” “Examining a still-active sports figure is difficult,” wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer; “Thompson mostly manages it by detailing Curry’s relentless drive.”
Thompson points out in Golden that Curry’s reputation as a nice guy, although deserved, nonetheless has its limits. He has been ejected from games for throwing his mouth guard (including a 2016 championship match in which the mouth guard hit a fan). “He’s a two-time MVP with a chip on his shoulder. For me, the part that was pretty revelatory was that Steph doesn’t have that reputation as having that killer instinct. Steph’s whole reputation is: good guy, nice guy, great shooter,” Thompson told Mayer “So, what I tried to do in the book is break that down so that people understand … he has an all-time edge…. We just don’t think of Steph in the same way. He’s just as ‘I’m going to show you’ as Westbrook or Paul.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2017, Wes Lukowsky, review of Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, p. 12.
Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2017, Ross Atkin, “10 New Sports Books for Fans.”
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2017, review of Golden.
Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2017, review of Golden, p. 91.
ONLINE
CBSLocal Sports, http://sports.cbslocal.com/ (May 2, 2017), Ryan Mayer, “Marcus Thompson: I Think Players Look at Steph like He Has a ‘Cheat Code.'”
Mercury News Online, http://www.mercurynews.com/ (November 8, 2017), author profile.
Simon & Schuster Website, http://www.simonandschuster.com/ (November 8, 2017), author profile.
Marcus Thompson
Marcus Thompson II is a sports columnist for the Mercury News and East Bay Times, the flagship publications of Bay Area News Group. Before expanding to reporting and opining on the NFL and other San Francisco Bay Area pro and college sports, he covered the Golden State Warriors exclusively as beat writer for ten seasons. Thompson is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, where he received a BA in mass media arts with a concentration on journalism. He lives with his wife, Dawn, and daughter, Sharon, in Oakland, California. Golden is his first book.
Marcus Thompson II
Marcus Thompson is a former sports columnist for the Bay News Group.
Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry
Wes Lukowsky
Booklist.
113.14 (Mar. 15, 2017): p12.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry.
By Marcus Thompson.
Apr. 2017.272p. Touchstone, $26 (9781501147838). 796.323092.
For the NBA-challenged, Steph Curry is the two-time league MVP who led the Golden State Warriors to the 2015
championship and to the finals in 2016. His boyish good looks and soft-spoken demeanor have led many to refer to him
as the Baby-Faced Assassin. It's an apt moniker. Curry is a deadly shooter from anywhere, but especially three-point
distance. Thompson, who was a beat reporter covering the Warriors for 10 years, knows the NBA well and provides
context for Curry's role in the resurrection of a long-moribund franchise. Thompson also delves into Curry's youth
growing up as the son of an NBA player, Dell Curry, who was also a renowned three-point shooter. Thompson recounts
Steph's early career, including his amazing college years at Davidson and his early seasons with the Warriors, which
were hampered by a disheartening series of injuries. Needless to say, he recovered, and the rest is history. Curry is very
popular among NBA fans, especially younger ones who mimic Curry's every move and mannerism. Expect significant
demand.--Wes Lukowsky
YA: A must for teen NBA fans. WL.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Lukowsky, Wes. "Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2017, p. 12. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA490998376&it=r&asid=264658b155a1e5818e7e833d322d6d4d.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A490998376
10/15/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508104612616 2/3
Thompson II, Marcus: GOLDEN
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Thompson II, Marcus GOLDEN Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 4, 11 ISBN: 978-1-5011-
4783-8
A hagiographic look at an NBA star with a lot of career ahead of him.Steph Curry is a bona fide superstar. The point
guard for the Golden State Warriors has won two MVP awards and has led his team to consecutive NBA Finals
appearances, winning in 2015 and losing in a heartbreaking seven-game series to LeBron James and the Cleveland
Cavaliers in 2016. He is also largely responsible for the resurrection of the Warriors, who languished near the bottom of
the league for years. "Worse than being bad, worse than being onto something and blowing it on the biggest stage, the
Warriors were irrelevant," writes Bay Area News Group sports columnist Thompson. Now, the Warriors are once again
at the top of the Western Conference this season, and there is a case to be made that Curry is the greatest three-point
shooter in league history. Furthermore, he is charismatic and compelling, with a beautiful family and a great back story:
the son of a former NBA star who attended a midmajor school, Davidson, far more well known for academics than for
athletics. By all accounts, he is a genuinely good guy. So this book, about one of the NBA's biggest and most
marketable stars, is not surprising. However, this treatment of an athlete with many years to go before retirement feels
opportunistic. To be sure, the author is a fine journalist with sound insight into the NBA and especially Curry and the
Warriors, a team he has covered for many years, but the book is so laden with praise that at times it reads like an
extended press release. Fans of the Warriors and especially of Curry will enjoy the book, which has its virtues in terms
of depth and insight, but the rest can wait until Curry's career is over for a more fully fleshed and less-adulatory
biography.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Thompson II, Marcus: GOLDEN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA482911672&it=r&asid=2f65ef7f78ae2a2862df21687373393c.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482911672
10/15/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508104612616 3/3
Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry
Publishers Weekly.
264.9 (Feb. 27, 2017): p91.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry
Marcus Thompson II. Touchstone, $26 (272p)
ISBN 978-1-5011-4783-8
Thompson, a columnist for the Mercury News and East Bay Times, frequently gets up-close looks at Curry, the
cherubic scoring savant for the Golden State Warriors, who is just entering the prime of his basketball career at age 28.
Examining a still-active sports figure is difficult; Thompson mostly manages it by detailing Curry's relentless drive.
Curry went from getting zero scholarship offers from major colleges to being an NBA lottery pick. After two NBA
MVP awards, Curry still endures punishing off-season workouts and keeps giving his trainer more to work on.
Unfortunately, Thompson never finds the balance between tone and content, stumbling into game recaps and
observations on his subject that can be overwrought ("{Curry's tactics} are tools for revenge, to announce his
superiority"), simplistic ("He makes the kind of shots people daydream about"), or dossier-dull statistical. He fails to
unite the disparate themes to profile a new kind of athletic superstar, a devout, humble family man who turned
craftiness and outside shooting into sexy, marketable qualities. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry." Publishers Weekly, 27 Feb. 2017, p. 91. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485671231&it=r&asid=41cb4c667cb8e8a63aac39d9f138e175.
Accessed 15 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485671231
Marcus Thompson: I Think Players Look At Steph Like He Has A ‘Cheat Code’
May 2, 2017 11:51 AM
Filed Under: Golden State Warriors, Marcus Thompson, NBA, Ryan Mayer, Stephen Curry
Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Ryan Mayer
Stephen Curry has experienced a rise to superstardom in the NBA as quick as any player that we’ve seen. In a little over four years, Curry went from injury-prone, undersized point guard for a bad Warriors team to the pinnacle of the NBA, winning back-to-back MVPs and appearing in consecutive NBA Finals while winning one. Along the way, Curry has gone from beloved hero of the NBA insider crew, to a “villain” whom both players and fans alike seek to discredit at any opportunity they get.
Bay Area News Group columnist Marcus Thompson has covered Curry throughout this meteoric ascent to the top of the NBA and recently wrote a book detailing the Warriors guard’s rise to the NBA elite. Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Stephen Curry, written by Thompson and published by Simon and Schuster, gives fans a chance to look behind the curtain at what made Curry into the player capable of accomplishing these myriad feats. Prior to the start of the Warriors second round series with the Utah Jazz, I caught up via phone with Thompson to discuss the book, the hate sent Curry’s way, and why current players seem to undervalue what he brings to the table.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
CBS Local Sports: Why did you decide to write the book?
Marcus Thompson: Do you want the intellectual/inspirational answer? Or the real answer? (laughing).
CBS Local Sports: How about both?
The intellectual answer would be I was watching a game and this realization came over me as Steph dribbled up the court and hit a ridiculous shot and I thought, ‘man, you know how many kids could change their lives by reading this?’ That’s probably the inspirational answer.
The truth is, an agent called me and said ‘hey, we have some publishers who want to pay you to write a book,’ and I was like, ‘let’s do it.’ (Laughing). To be honest though, at the time, the Warriors were coming off of winning a championship, so it was already crazy for me as a columnist in the Bay Area. The next season was starting and they were already 16-0 or 17-0 when I got the call asking about the book.
It was just wild because it wasn’t even in my mind to write a book. I was just trying to keep up with my columns and the podcast and video. At first, when the agent called me, I was like ‘Are you crazy? Do you know what’s happening right now?’ I was just trying to keep up with my day job.
CBS Local Sports: Reading the book, one of the things that fascinates me is how quickly Curry went from superstar and hero to becoming a “villain” in the NBA. Did that surprise you at all watching that play out?
Thompson: I was surprised, but then when I thought about it, I was surprised that I was surprised. Part of it is that, admittedly, I know Steph pretty well. Steph is one of those guys where, if you don’t like him, then there’s something wrong with you. Or, if you don’t like him, then that means you don’t really know him and are operating off of assumptions, speculation and innuendo about him. He’s a really hard guy not to like if you know him, so part of my surprise was just “how do you not like Steph?”
On the other hand, when you pull back a little bit, of course this would happen, right? You get so high, there’s nowhere to go but down. This is what we do. We build people up to tear them down. We love the great underdog stories that come from nothing, the dramatic rise, but we also like the dramatic fall.
I remember when he threw his mouth guard in Game 6 of the Finals and got ejected followed by his wife sending out that tweet; the joy, that he had this moment, was weird. That’s when I realized, ‘wow, people are really happy that he’s having a bad day.’ People were waiting for this moment and that’s when I stepped back and went ‘wow, we’ve really done this again.’ I’m not saying he’s not deserving of criticism… he is, especially for throwing his mouthpiece and hitting a fan. But there was just a lot of joy around that moment where people were happy to see him fail and that was weird. Because, Steph is a guy where, if you know him, you really don’t want him to fail.
gettyimages 540885448 Marcus Thompson: I Think Players Look At Steph Like He Has A Cheat Code
CLEVELAND, OH – JUNE 16: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors leaves the court after fouling out and being ejected in the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena on June 16, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
CBS Local Sports: Another thing you mentioned in the book is Steph having this “I’ll show you” mindset for responding to sleights. How surprised are you that he’s been able to keep that mindset despite all that he’s accomplished?
Thompson: That’s the part that’s unique. He’s a two-time MVP with a chip on his shoulder. For me, the part that was pretty revelatory was that Steph doesn’t have that reputation as having that killer instinct. Steph’s whole reputation is: good guy, nice guy, great shooter. I don’t think people understand that he does have that “Black Mamba” mentality. The players understand that, even LeBron said ‘Don’t let that smile fool you’. But, Steph is so… for lack of a better word, cute, that you don’t see him as venomous, right? That’s the kind of perception that Steph has.
So, what I tried to do in the book is break that down so that people understand this dude is… he has an all-time edge. When we think of aggressive, killer instinct, ‘I’ll show you’ point guards, we think of Westbrook or Chris Paul or maybe even Kyrie. We just don’t think of Steph in the same way. He’s just as ‘I’m going to show you’ as Westbrook or Paul. The crazy part is, how do you have it after all that he’s accomplished?
He’s been on late night shows, he’s hanging out with Drake, he’s a two-time MVP, he’s won a championship and he still feels like these people don’t believe in him. That’s a level of maniacal behavior that we attribute to all-time greats.
CBS Local Sports: You’ve talked in interviews about other players, like Westbrook or LeBron, not liking Steph with some of it having to do with his meteoric rise to popularity. How does Steph feel about the fact that some of these guys, his contemporaries, are basically like ‘nah, you’re not one of us yet?’
Thompson: I think initially there was some surprise there. I think it actually started a little earlier with the whole Warriors-Clippers rivalry. He and Chris Paul’s relationship started to change. I think on Steph’s part there was some feeling of ‘Oh, I guess we’re not cool like that anymore.’ That’s where it began. It made a lot of sense with Paul though because they were involved in a heated rivalry.
But, really, in the book, the part that was most jarring was the former players and how they were so reticent to embrace Steph. The current players, their mindset is a lot more of ‘Why him?’ We’re as good as him, but he gets this extra love and he doesn’t deserve it. I get why LeBron would want to diminish Curry, because Curry is in essence the message to him from everybody else that he’s no longer at the top. My only surprise with LeBron is I feel like he’s a good guy too. I would have liked, personally, to have seen LeBron embrace Steph because they’re two good guys who are really great at basketball and I just personally think it’s good to have good guys representing the sport. That said, I understand because of what Steph represents. People saying Curry is the best in the game means that LeBron is not, so I get it from his standpoint.
gettyimages 540881636 Marcus Thompson: I Think Players Look At Steph Like He Has A Cheat Code
CLEVELAND, OH – JUNE 16: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers reacts against Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors during the fourth quarter in Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals at Quicken Loans Arena on June 16, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
I even get Westbrook. I don’t think Westbrook likes anybody for the record. It’s not like he likes all these other people and hates Steph. But, I do see that he’s got commercials taking little veiled shots at Steph. He probably had designs on having a similar rise. He signed with Jordan brand, he’s got commercials and everything and then here comes this dude at Under Armour taking all the shine. So, I kind of get it, but I don’t get the former players.
I don’t get Oscar Robertson. I don’t get some of these other players who behind the scenes were saying that he’s not worthy of this. My question was, well, how are we determining that? There’s just something about Steph that they haven’t said he’s just like us. Even this year, I was watching one of the “players only” broadcasts that the Warriors were playing in. They put a graphic on the screen with five point guards: Curry, John Wall, Russell Westbrook, and Kyrie Irving — maybe another guy. The guys on the broadcast were all asked, of these five point guards, which one would you choose to start a franchise. None of them said the two-time MVP that actually has a championship. That’s when I was like wow, they just really don’t like this dude.
CBS Local Sports: That’s interesting. How much of that do you think has to do with the fact that Steph isn’t that outwardly crazy athletic prototype point guard? You illustrated in the book how he’s athletic in other ways, but how much of the dismissal of him do you think comes from the fact that he’s not the same kind of imposing athlete?
Thompson: I think that’s definitely part of it. I have these conversations with players all the time. I tell them all the time that you guys are just so infatuated with athleticism. I still have players telling me that peak Derrick Rose is better than peak Steph Curry. I do think that there’s something that, they are impressed by physicality. That’s not even just in the NBA. It’s been that way since they were kids. When you’re in the seventh grade and there’s that one dude who can dunk and the others can’t, that’s what wows you.
For players, I think it doesn’t burn as much getting owned by LeBron because he’s a physical specimen. That makes sense. I think part of Steph doesn’t make sense to them because, he’s just shooting, in their minds. It’s not like he’s physically superior, he’s just shooting. So, I think that is part of the disrespect towards Steph, because they are inherently impressed with superior athleticism, which is why they love guys like Westbrook or Derrick Rose before the injuries. I think that they look at Steph as like he’s kind of cheating. He’s not as good as us, but he’s got this cheat code where he can hit these threes and it warps everything. I just think they’re really impressed with athleticism and physical prowess. That’s how the game was presented to them growing up, with athleticism and physical dominance and Steph just doesn’t do that for them.
CBS Local Sports: Final question for you, what surprised you the most as you were going through the process of writing this book?
Thompson: Part of it was just grasping how big he got, or rather, how big he is. Sometimes, you’re so far into the forest that you don’t see the trees. Steph is just Steph to us out here. He doesn’t have the entourage that prevents you from getting to him. But, when you pull back and view it from a satellite level, you realize that this dude really is big. Part of it is that in the Bay Area, we’re used to the Warriors being underwhelming. So, to see a Warriors player at this height, it’s still kind of odd.
When you go to other arenas and you realize that there are a third of the people in the stadium wearing Curry jerseys, you go ‘wow, this guy is huge.’
gettyimages 504949990 Marcus Thompson: I Think Players Look At Steph Like He Has A Cheat Code
DENVER, CO – JANUARY 13: A young fans displays a sign in support of Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors as he faces the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center on January 13, 2016 in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets defeated the Warriors 112-110. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
The other pleasant surprise for me — or the thing that I didn’t expect but it was a pleasure to find out — was how integral his mom has been to his career. I was ready to write the heartwarming father-son chapter, because all you hear about is Dell and Steph. Not to say Dell wasn’t integral to his career, he absolutely was. He taught Steph how to shoot. But, I didn’t know how important his mother was to his career.
When I set out to write the book, I set out to answer, ‘well, how did this happen?’ What has gone into this to make this happen? A lot of the traits that have gone into it have come from his mother including that competitive drive that we talked about. That maniacal intensity, that comes from Sonya because she’s a fiery woman. Revealing that story was cool, because I didn’t know that and that was fun to write.
Marcus’ book, Golden: The Miraculous Rise Of Steph Curry, is available in bookstores and online everywhere. The Warriors open the second round of the Western Conference playoffs on Tuesday night at home against the Utah Jazz.
Books
10 new sports books for fans
By Ross Atkin May 4, 2017
For the eclectic-minded sports fan, this lineup offers an appealing variety, from basketball releases about Steph Curry and LeBron James to histories of vanished baseball stadiums to the story of a pioneering NFL team.
[previous] [next]
1. ‘Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry,’ by Marcus Thompson II
About video ads
View Caption
While other players enter the National Basketball Association as surefire superstars, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors sort of snuck up on the league. Few, if any observers, anticipated that the 6 ft. 3 in. guard out of Davidson College would quickly emerge as one of the most unstoppable offensive forces and best pure shooters the game has witnessed. His intriguing story is chronicled by Marcus Thompson, who spent 10 seasons as a beat writer covering Golden State. While winning back-to-back MVP awards, Curry has astounded fans with his ability to quickly and accurately launch shots from long range, win them over with his hard-working, wholesome image, and wow them with an impressive pregame warmup routine.
Here’s an excerpt from Golden:
“After a practice once, Curry was asked if it felt good to embarrass opponents. Because Curry is the quintessential nice guy off the court, the questioner wondered if he relishes the opportunity to be mean on the court. But Curry rejected the premise.
“ ‘That would imply that I’m never mean off the court,’ he said. ‘That’s crazy. I have bad days, too.’
“His teammates have called him Golden Boy and monikers of that ilk. He accepts it, but he doesn’t prefer it. Any situation that exalts him as holier than thou Curry tries to elude like it’s a defender chasing him around the screen. Anyone who asks him about his faith, he will happily answer, but he avoids the grandiose presentations and delights in the intimate actions away from the spotlight.”