OAKLAND – Stephen Curry’s numerous duties as the unofficial host of the NBA’s All-Star weekend have taken the Warriors star across the Bay Area.
Friday, he was, among other stops, at Oakland’s McClymonds High for a gym restoration ceremony. Sunday, he’ll be front and center at Chase Center for the main event.
Saturday, the 11-time All-Star was back where it all started for him with the Warriors — the arena in Oakland, where Curry and the other stars participated in a morning practice. After that, it was back across the Bay Bridge to attend Saturday night’s skills, 3-point and dunk competitions at the house Curry helped build – Chase Center.
“This is a cool celebration, a ceremony of being in this arena,” Curry said after the workout in Oakland, in the building where he won three of his four NBA championships.
“But you can’t necessarily, for me, even allow the celebration of it to take your foot off the gas pedal and what I’m still trying to accomplish out there on the court,” Curry added. “So it’s an interesting balance.”
Curry has spent 16 transcendent seasons with the Warriors, the past five at the state-of-the-art Chase Center. Saturday, back where it all started, Curry spoke about the good old times and what’s to come. The 11-time All-Star made it clear that he believes he still has a lot left in the tank, borrowing a pop culture reference to hammer the point home.
“I made a reference to ‘Coming to America 2’, where they had, like, the live funeral thing,” said Curry, 36. “Everybody’s celebrating you, but you’re still there, witnessing it. I don’t want it to be that at all. But you do want to celebrate, to some extent, for sure.”
Pretty much everyone in attendance on Saturday in Oakland let Curry hear their appreciation when he emerged from the tunnel he made famous. Preceded by former teammate Kevin Durant, who received the second-loudest ovation, Curry was the final member of the Shaq’s OG’s team to come out for practice.
The nearly full arena crowd did its best to revive the ghosts of Oracle Arena past. It was a fitting capper to the decade Curry spent in Oakland, where he matured from a 3-point wunderkind to a global superstar.
Much more so than his final game in Oakland in 2019, when the Warriors lost the NBA Finals to Toronto in Game 6 – the same game Klay Thompson tore his ACL.
“This is a moment for sure,” Curry said. “The idea of knowing we made the move to Chase Center and been in San Francisco the last six seasons, to have a little bit of a moment to honor and reminisce about the 47 years that we played in this building, the 10 years that I had growing up in the game inside of these walls, the energy in this building that can come back just like that, I’ve enjoyed it to the fullest.”
Curry has worn a lot of hats this All-Star weekend, but the significance of this occasion goes beyond that. He is an icon in the game, and this joyful commemoration may be remembered as the last great moment of his Warriors career.
But if he has anything to say about it, he’s got a few more just like it still to come.
“He changed the game,” All-Star teammate James Harden said. “From his aura, and obviously his shooting and his presence. Being in this arena gives me some nightmares, because when I had to go against him, it was like a real battle. We literally created teams just to beat the Warriors.”
Whether he ruined the game, as former Warriors coach Mark Jackson once implied, or changed it for the better, Curry transformed how the NBA and the broader basketball world perceived shooting from distance.
His legacy is secure. So what’s next?
“Every team is trying to figure out how to make the necessary moves if your goal is to win a championship,” Curry said. “(We’re) trying to do that on a daily basis. So for us as players, you just do your job and make sure you’re staying prepared and healthy and available and handling our business.”
For now, the future can wait. Curry has responsibilities as the face of the franchise this weekend.
He isn’t taking part in the 3-point contest, to the disappointment of many. But he will be ubiquitous even in his absence from the event.
“He’s done so much for the game, and it’s going to be sad when he and guys like KD, LeBron and us remove ourselves from the game,” Harden said. “It’s going to be sad. But this is an opportunity for us to celebrate him.”
Curry will do some celebrating this weekend. But he’ll do most of it when the work is finally done.
In the meantime, he’ll probably make a few more threes. After all, it’s what he does.
“That impact is pretty surreal to me, just because that’s the way that I’ve seen the game since I was a kid,” Curry said. “I love expanding my range. But even more, I love the work that goes into earning and deserving that confidence. That’s the message that I preach all the time.
“I want everybody to be inspired, if you love basketball, to be able to shoot, get better and stretch your range. I would love for you to be inspired to do that, but you also got to work at it too. The ruining the game thing, it is a charge and a challenge. If you want to do that, then get in the gym, get your reps in and earn it.”
Bay Area News Group’s Joseph Dycus contributed to this report.
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