https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/After-emulating-Steph-Curry-Jeff-Dowtin-Jr-16557422.php

Like many unheralded point guards, Jeff Dowtin Jr. has used Stephen Curry’s story — from lightly touted recruit to two-time NBA MVP — as motivation during a basketball journey that has included plenty of setbacks.

Dowtin’s online bio at the University of Rhode Island listed Curry as his favorite player. In addition to watching Curry’s revolutionary 3-point shooting, Dowtin spent hours on YouTube studying his idol’s off-ball movement, stutter-steps to create space and low-angle bounce passes.

That’s part of the reason Downtin initially didn’t believe his agent Sunday night. Less than 24 hours earlier, he had flown home to Washington, D.C., so he could retrieve his car and prepare for the 13-hour drive to the Magic’s G League affiliate in Lakeland, Fla. Now, as he waited in a fast-food line, Downtin was being told over the phone that the Warriors had claimed him off waivers and put him on a two-way contract.

While his agent detailed such logistics as a flight time and the name of a San Francisco hotel, Downtin struggled to listen. His mind was preoccupied with the notion that he would share a roster with Curry and suit up for his favorite NBA team.

“Oh my God, you’re for real?” Downtin, 24, recalled telling his agent, Bill Neff. “This is crazy.”

Four days later, he sat on the Warriors’ bench at Chase Center as Curry scored 45 points in a 115-113 win over the Clippers. It hardly mattered to Dowtin that he was Golden State’s only active player not to check into the game.

In less than a year, he has gone undrafted, been waived twice and come off the bench in the G League. A front-row seat for Curry’s heroics feels like a winning lottery ticket by comparison.

As a two-way-contract player, Dowtin will earn roughly $462,000 this season and be on the Warriors’ active list for up to 50 games. The rest of his time will be spent with Golden State’s G League affiliate in Santa Cruz, where he’ll try to learn the organization’s read-and-react system, play hard on defense and emerge as another bargain find..

The Warriors have two rotation players, guard Damion Lee and forward Juan Toscano-Anderson, who parlayed two-way deals into key roles with the big club. Dowtin has already peppered both with questions in hopes of following a similar trajectory. But as of Thursday, Dowtin had yet to speak with Curry — the man who has served as his biggest inspiration for more than a decade.

“Honestly, I haven’t wrapped my mind around the fact that we’re teammates,” Dowtin said. “Right now, I’m just kind of focused on playing basketball.”

In Curry, young players see a cause for greatness they can relate to. Unlike LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose athletic feats seem super-human, Curry doesn’t depend on size or leaping ability to dominate.

Dowtin is one of the millions of NBA hopefuls who grew up mimicking Curry’s deep 3-pointers and dizzying dribbling displays. As Dowtin was starting to become a mid-major prospect at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., Curry was leading the Warriors to championships.

Toward the end of Dowtin’s senior season, when he began to receive interest from bigger-conference colleges, he thought about Curry. By using tiny Davidson (enrollment: 1,983) as a springboard to a top-10 pick in the NBA draft, Curry had showed that a meaningful Division I role — not the name of the school — was what mattered.

Dowtin enrolled at Rhode Island, where he spent four years and helped the Rams reach two NCAA Tournaments. Like Curry, he was a 6-foot-3 sharpshooter with a reputation for hitting big shots and mentoring younger teammates. But instead of getting drafted, Dowtin spent the 2020 draft working out with his trainer as he waited for someone, anyone, to give him a chance at the sport’s top level.

After coming off the bench in all 15 games he played last season for the G League-champion Lakeland Magic, Dowtin accepted an invite to join the Warriors’ Summer League team at the California Classic in Sacramento. In two games, he averaged 17 points on 65% shooting, including a 21-point outburst in a win over the Kings.

Though Dowtin went on to put up less gaudy numbers with Orlando at Las Vegas Summer League and three preseason games, he remained near the top of Golden State’s list for potential two-way-contract additions. This wasn’t communicated to Dowtin, who, after getting cut by the Magic, assumed he was poised for another season in Lakeland.

San Francisco, and a courtside seat to watch Curry, is far more preferable.

“I’m focused on getting better each day,” said Dowtin, who isn’t expected to get meaningful NBA minutes anytime soon. “But I’m not going to lie, just being here is pretty cool.”