Curry took criticism personally before career night: 'Cue the Jordan meme'

Stephen Curry drew some special inspiration for his outrageous 62-point outburst Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Following his career-best scoring performance, Curry was asked if he had taken early-season criticism personally. The Golden State Warriors star then invoked Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and his viral phrase from the ESPN docuseries "The Last Dance."

"Cue the Jordan meme, right?" he said, according to Kerith Burke of NBC Sports. "I take all that personally."

Curry is referencing the graphic that features Jordan sitting in a chair with a caption of the quote underneath.

Curry's previous career high was 54 points in a loss to the New York Knicks on Feb. 27, 2013.

He insists that Sunday's performance was the result of trying to provide the Warriors with an early spark following a sluggish start to the season. The team was 2-3 entering the game and coming off a 25-point blowout loss to the same Trail Blazers on New Year's Day.

"(I got) an opportunity to kind of assert my will on the game early and try to create some energy and get off to the right foot," he said. "It's crazy how it sounds after the game; all we really wanted to do was win the first quarter and take it from there. Obviously, that's what we did."

Fun fact: Jordan never actually says, verbatim, "and I took that personally" at any point in the series. He does, at least twice, however, utter a similar "It became personal with me."