Stephen Curry Talks 'Dark Days' of Trying to Overcome Ankle Injuries Early in Career

Stephen Curry opened up on the difficulty of recovering from multiple ankle injuries early in his NBA career during Tuesday's episode of the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash.

"There were definitely some dark days," Curry told James and Nash at the 19:30 mark of the podcast.

Curry had multiple procedures on his ankles in his first three NBA seasons, starting with surgery to address instability in his right ankle in May 2011.

He played in just 26 games of his third season, while spraining his ankle five times, before undergoing his next procedure in 2012.

Curry told James and Nash he had rolled his ankle once after stepping on another player's foot during his junior season at Davidson, but hadn't had serious ankle issues until he was in the NBA.

"I wasn't even rolling my ankle landing on somebody. I was doing it when I would catch it in transition, I'm pushing off, and that thing would flip... I just couldn't stay on my feet," Curry told James and Nash.

Curry said learning how to recover from his ankle injuries involved "the most boring, monotonous work you've ever done in your life" such as studying small muscle movements through proprioception, which involves fine-tuning the body's sense of positioning.

"That was the learning curve of trying to figure out how you're going to survive in this league. And if I couldn't even be available, how could I even know, am I good enough? Can I get to that level?" Curry said. "There was a lot of fear and doubt in that moment, for sure. Because you feel so far away from yourself."

Curry is currently playing in his 17th season with the Golden State Warriors, ranking him among the 17 longest-tenured players in the NBA.

He told James, who has yet to play in his 23rd NBA season after being diagnosed with right-side sciatica, that those early-career ankle issues still impact how he's approaching his own age-37 campaign.

"I think there's an understanding of not taking anything for granted, even at this stage, in terms of longevity, that I learned then, that's carried to this day of how I approach the offseason," Curry said.

Curry has so far appeared in all seven games of the Warriors' 4-3 start to the 2025-26 season. He is averaging 26.6 points per game while averaging 4.3 three-pointers on 38.5 percent shooting from deep.