NBA All-Star Reveals Symptom That Led to Shock Diagnosis

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N / San Francisco Chronicle via Gett Stephen Curry has revealed that he won two NBA championships despite unknowingly struggling with a serious eye condition.

The Golden State Warriors star, 38, revealed in an interview with People on Wednesday that he spent years playing at the highest level of basketball with keratoconus, a progressive eye condition that can distort vision.

Curry said that by 2018, blurred vision and distorted images had become so normal that he didn’t realize anything was wrong.

By then, Curry had already led the Warriors to championships in 2015 and 2017 and was on his way to a third title.

The problem was finally spotted from the sidelines—or rather, from a television screen.

Bob Myers, then the general manager of the Warriors, was watching Curry during a road game broadcast when cameras repeatedly caught the superstar squinting on the bench.

“Have you gotten your eyes checked? You should probably go do that because that wasn’t normal,” Curry recalled Myers texting him after the game.

Curry expected a routine appointment.

Instead, an optometrist diagnosed him with keratoconus.

The condition causes the normally dome-shaped cornea to thin and bulge outward into a cone shape, according to the Mayo Clinic .

That change can cause blurry or distorted vision, sensitivity to light and glare, and frequent changes in glasses prescriptions.

Keratoconus often begins in the late teens through the 30s and can worsen gradually over years.

In earlier stages, glasses or contact lenses may help correct the resulting vision problems.

If the disease is progressing, a procedure called corneal cross-linking can slow or stop further changes to the cornea.