Why Steph Curry Chews on His Mouth Guard Explained

If you’ve ever witnessed the greatness that is Steph Curry, you’ve probably seen all his dazzling shots.

The three points bombs, the floaters,  the tough layups in traffic. But really the Threes always stick out for me. But what you may also notice is his penchant to chew on his mouth guard. It’s kind of like his Michael Jordan tongue out move.  Steph is constantly chewing on his mouth guard, especially while at the free throw line.

Ahead of  the NBA Finals we figured we might as well take a deep dive into why exactly he chews on it.

Steph told Jimmy Kimmel back in 2015 that he got elbowed in college and got one after that. But he also said, it “kind of calms him down,” especially at the free-throw line.

Watch Steph explain below:

There’s a crazy stat about his chewing his mouth guard, per ESPN back in 2016:

According to The Wall Street Journal, Curry shoots free throws better when he’s chewing on his mouthguard. Over the past two regular seasons, he made 92% of his free throws when chewing on the mouthguard, compared to 89% when he kept the mouthguard in place. He also increased the amount of time he chewed on his mouthpiece to 85% of his ’15-16 free throw tries–up 21% from ’14-15.

From Sports Illustrated in 2016:

It’s the new Jordan tongue. And, like Jordan, Curry doesn’t realize when it’s in or out: “Some fan studied it. He said I shoot 2% better on free throws with it out. And I think he’s right. Because when I shoot a free throw with it in, I always go, Whoa, that’s weird. It’s where it’s supposed to be.”

Who could forget the time he threw his mouth guard:

Stephen Curry fouls out, throws mouthguard at fan, says he's sorry pic.twitter.com/EMpWVvnxH8

— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) June 17, 2016

It’s Steph thing, and just another thing that separates his from the rest.

Chew on Steph!

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