While Steph Curry’s rise to greatness has been focused on his shooting, playmaking, ball handling, and other impressive skills that are visible to fans, there are other keys to his greatness that fans cannot see.

In a recent interview with Slam, Curry revealed one of these, which has been a major emphasis for him in recent years.

“Probably breathing,” Curry said when asked what the smallest detail of basketball is for him. “My skills coach Brandon Payne always talks about how breathing is a skill.

I think for the young kids it’s beneficial, but they can kinda get away with it just because they’re so energetic and young, and they don’t even need to warm up these days, they just go out there and hoop.

But the deeper you get into your career, being able to control your breathing, like recovery, controlling your nerves, all those type of things, I’ve really tried to master that in the last 5-6 years. Nobody would really know you’re doing it when you’re doing it… That’s like an all the time thing. It doesn’t matter if it’s in my training sessions, training camp, preseason, regular season, or Finals, it’s always a fine detail of kinda mastering the game.”

These small details are always fascinating to hear players like Curry talk about, because while fans get to see the result of that focus, what goes into it is often unseen.