Curry wanted Under Armour spot to reflect agony of defeat

Steph Curry is steering head-on into the bitter disappointment of last season's Finals, when his 73-9 Golden State Warriors blew a 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Curry's latest Under Armour spot, - in which he calls the idea of a missed championship "fresh" and "new," then challenges himself to "make that old" - was initially conceived with a far different tone. Curry apparently demanded it be reworked.

"We had this idea that was sunny and bright, happy and fun - but he lost. The team lost," Under Armour's marketing director Adrienne Lofton told The Vertical's Nick DePaula. "We shared the (original) idea with Stephen and (UA director of basketball marketing) Kris Stone, and they immediately said, 'This is not it.' We had to rip up the paper weeks before we were supposed to shoot."

Curry said he wanted the ad to be a true reflection of his and his teammates' profound disappointment, and their burning desire to erase it.

"This commercial is very real, very relevant," he said. "It's acknowledging what happened in the Finals and how we're going to move on from that, push on and not let that define a career or a story."

Still, much as Curry wants to "move on," he acknowledges that the sting of that loss will probably be with him forever, for good or ill.

"I don't think I'll ever get the memory of the Finals out of my head, because it happened and I felt every emotion," he said.

"I think it's a good thing that it'll live there as a motivator."