All of Deah Shaddy Barakat’s close friends knew he was a big fan of Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, and that is why they reached out to Curry to ask him to honor their friend.
In the stands at a recent game Barakat’s friends were using their minds to will Curry to respond to their Twitter calls.
Barakat used to wear the number 30 jersey—Curry’s number—during basketball games. He named the basketball team he played with in local tournaments the Splash Brothers, after the Warriors duo of Curry and Klay Thompson, who were both given the Splash Brothers nickname for their prowess at making three-point shots.
Two months ago, when Barakat married his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, he posed in a wedding photo dressed in a tuxedo and sneakers dribbling a basketball—just like a photo of Curry from a GQ magazine photoshoot.
This past Tuesday, Barakat, Abu-Salha, and his sister-in-law Razan Abu-Salha were gunned down in their apartment in Chapel Hill, N.C. The three were Muslim-Americans who had attended school at the nearby University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. Local police and the FBI are investigating whether the crime was hate or bias-motivated.
Rahim said Barakat’s brother, Farris told Barakat’s friends that of all the people who reached out to the family after Barakat’s death, no one would’ve mattered more than Curry. “Because Deah would’ve gone nuts knowing Curry did this,” said Rahim.
Rahim and others are already planning their next steps to commemorate their friend. Through a mutual friend who attended school with Curry—who grew up in Charlotte, N.C.—Rahim hopes to convince Curry to wear a T- shirt bearing the names and faces of Barakat and the two Abu-Salha sisters at his next game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
