Hard to say who might have been more thrilled this week, Stephen Curry or the president of the United States, an avid hoops player himself who once called the Golden State Warriors guard the best shooter he had ever seen.
But Curry, who lives in Oakland, did not officially visit the White House on Wednesday to show Barack Obama how to make a three-pointer. He was there to speak about the president’s Malaria Initiative, something he became passionate about after visiting Tanzania in 2013 and seeing how children were affected by the disease.
"That hit home to me as we traveled through the camp to hear stories of how malaria impacted all those families," Curry told the Mercury News. A father himself, Curry said he was moved to act. He and his wife, Ayesha, have two children.
"Let's keep the fight going," he said after the meeting.
Curry for the past three seasons has donated three insecticide-treated mosquito nets for every 3-pointer he makes as part of the United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign. Since he started in 2012, Curry has donated 1,599 bed nets, according to the organization.
The goal of the group is to find athletes who are willing to find “fun, creative ways” to raise awareness and money to buy a $10 bednet to combat the disease by protecting people from mosquito bites. Since 2006, Nothing But Nets has delivered more than nine million nets to families in 29 countries across Africa. Malaria kills more than 600,000 people worldwide each year.
But Curry’s charitable works don’t end with malaria. On Thursday, he and San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick are pushing the benefits of cauliflower as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative, which has been nicknamed “FNV,” a supposedly catchier title for fruits and vegetables.”
NBC Universal's Jennifer Vasquez contributed to this report.
