On this day 17 years ago, LeBron was witness to Steph Curry’s historic Sweet 16 performance

We are all witnesses. That was one of Nike’s most famous mantras back in the days of LeBron James’ reign in Cleveland. His face was plastered on billboards and buildings all over the city, but 17 years ago today, it was LeBron who was witness to a bit of NCAA history.

Steph’s Cinderella story

March 28th, 2008 we saw one of the most iconic performances in Big Dance history. The protagonist, a scrawny kid from an unknown school for the Southern Conference. The school was Davidson and the scrawny kid was Stephen Curry.

After being named a consensus second team All-American, averaging 25.9 points per game, Curry and the Wildcats went into the NCAA Tournament as a 10 seed. They beat 7 seed Gonzaga, then 8 seed Georgetown to set up a Sweet Sixteen match up with the Wisconsin Badgers.

There was already plenty of chatter about the then sophomore scorer out of the SoCon coming into the Big Dance. He made national headlines in his breakout season at Davidson, but the tales of some mystery kid from an unknown college soon became a reality on the sport’s biggest stage, and LeBron James was there to witness, as two of the best players of this generation were under the same roof for the very first time.

The first of many meetings

LeBron never went to college. He went right from St. Vincent St. Mary’s to the Cleveland Cavaliers back in 2003. By the time Curry was in his sophomore year in college LeBron was already a three time All-Star, an All-Star Game MVP, and was on the way to winning the first of his four MVPs.

LeBron must have heard about these youngster out of Davidson that was sweeping nation, because he was in attendance from Ford Field as Curry put on one of the greatest NCAA Tournament performances ever. Curry put up 33 points, hitting 6/11 threes in 37 minutes as the Wildcats downed Wisconsin 73-56.

Davidson’s Cinderella run would come to an end in the Elite 8 when they lost to the Kansas Jay Hawks, but the first page of the Steph Curry legacy was written, and LeBron had his first introduction to someone that would help him carry the NBA for an entire generation. Between them they have won eight NBA titles (four each), six MVPs (four for LeBron and two for Steph) and one is the all-time leading scorer in league history while the other is the all-time leading three point shooter. The only time they ever played on the same team was last summer in the Paris Olympics when they won Olympic Gold.

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