Jamie Foxx’s Steph Curry Slam Poetry In An Under Armour Ad Praises NBA Small Ball

What the Golden State Warriors managed to do last year has many wondering if we’re about to enter into a new era of NBA basketball.

It wasn’t just that they won a championship without being pushed to a seventh game, it was how they won it that could see a paradigm shift. Although Golden State possessed talented big men on the roster like Andrew Bogut, Marreese Speights, and Festus Ezeli, they often went small to gain an advantage, playing the 6’7 Draymond Green at center and creating match-up problems throughout their dominating 2014-15 season.

The NBA may never involve the truly tiny, and the fact that the Warriors were able to be so successful playing with a vertically challenged group has continued the shift we’ve seen in recent years with the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs.

In a new ad to promote the Curry Two, Under Armour again used Jamie Foxx as the narrator while Steph drops buckets all around him. Foxx explains the small-ball shift with slam poetry, of course.

The ad shows Curry knocking down jumpers while Foxx literally lights the room up by throwing flares and emphasizes how quickly — just .04 seconds, the measured time of his release — the revolution can come.

“Just like that, all of a sudden big ain’t so big no more. Small, ain’t so small, and with the flick of the wrist, the step-back three is the new dunk. Follow-through is the new poster, range is the new hang time. From the elbow to the rim, the threat now comes from everywhere. It’s a new age for the game, a new era of champions.

While the three-pointer might never replace the dunk like Foxx suggests, it has become just as exciting to watch. Ball movement, fluid passing, and five shooting threats on the floor at the same time has won titles.

We’ll see in 10 to 15 years if a position-less NBA makes the center position even more obsolete, or if this is just a passing fad. But what the Warriors — and specifically Steph Curry — were able to do last season, certainly makes the small-ball trend even more relevant.

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