Steph Curry Joins Q and D | Knuckleheads S7: E8 | The Players' Tribune

Yo, yo, yo. We live on location, Milwaukee. We stepped into the frigid cold for, we, hey, listen, we had to come. When you got somebody that's the best ever at something, the best ever, somebody that every time he do something, it's a new record. You gotta go ahead and pull up on it. That right, Black?

On the way.

Hey man, multiple, 2, 3 MVPs, however many MVPs, multi-time champion, man. Just point blank. The best shooter ever. Every time he hit a 3, it's a new record, y'all, man. We got Chef Curry in the building, man.

We appreciate you pulling up, bruh.

Y'all know this worldwide special right here.

Lock in. Yeah. First of all, we'd like to thank you, bro. We definitely appreciate it, bro.

Absolutely.

Thank you for rocking with us, man. We definitely, definitely rock with you, man. So, man, thank you. We appreciate it. First question we ask everybody that come on the show is who was the first person that bust your ass when you got to the league?

Cole.

You was a buck 90, so.

Cole was the first one preseason. It didn't really count 'cause it's preseason.

Cole went at you in preseason?

It was at the Forum too. So it was at like the iconic arena.

Special, special.

Yeah. Stack Jack got thrown out at halftime at a preseason game. So I had to come back and some reason For some reason I got switched on him. And so he just bust my ass in one possession. So he like, there's a switch. He walked me down to the post, called for the ball, but I'm trying to do like the 3/4 situation, like make it look good for film and all that. And he like grabbed my knee and did the whole thing where he wasn't gonna let me move. And I'm like trying to get away, trying to get away. I'm yelling at the ref thinking he's gonna call an offensive foul on him. Don't know what I'm talking about. And he got the ball one quick, shoulder to the chest, threw me like 5 feet back, turned around, jumper. That was a wrap. Then the second dude was Brandon Jennings. Brandon Jennings had a double nickel against us.

Oh, that was, ooh. I remember that. I didn't know.

He was going through my neck. Everybody remember that game.

Everybody, that was, look, that was like, we talked about that. 6th or 8th or 9th game in the league.

Yeah, it was the first East Coast road trip. He had 55 early in the game. He started out smoking, right? He dropped me early in the game, like the second quarter, we were trying to blitz him and he like came off with the screen on the left side. There's a film of it too. Hit me with a quick little left-right cross down to the middle. And I just sat down.

BJ don't get the proper respect. Like, boy, that boy was a bad boy. He was out here killing fools. And he was like, you know, he kind of started that whole, I go overseas before I go do this. And like, and then prospered and came back and was still a lottery pick. So he kinda, he kinda set the trend for that.

We got a lot in common. I got a lot in common with him, obviously same draft class, but he was Under Armour's first signature shoe athlete.

He had 6, a couple 6 pairs too.

So I remember just like, you know, seeing what they was putting out and all that. And like 5 years later, I was on the squad. So it was kind of crazy and all that.

Shout out BJ, man.

Yes, sir.

Every time you shoot one, it's a new record. Like every time you make one, you had that kind of like sunk in like, man, that's another one. Like you just, for the rest of your career, every time you shoot it, that's a new record. Like—

It ain't sunk in because I still, I'm still kind of realizing—

Still breaking records.

Of, you know, the chase to break Ray's record. And that whole just electric night that we had at the Garden, like you can't write, like we got, you know, storytellers and amazing award-winning authors and writers and screenplays and all that. Like you can't write that story any different. If I'm not gonna do it at home, to do it at the Garden in front of Ray, in front of Reggie, in front of my fam, I'm still kind of reeling off of the emotions of that. But somebody asked me like maybe 2 or 3 games after that, like, When I got to 3,000, I was like, that's a crazy milestone. Never thought I'd get there in my life. And then I feel like I got a whole lot left in the tank.

So— You definitely do.

Break the record with every 3. So I can't celebrate crazy like that every time.

Yeah, 'cause you got hype. But like, that make me think about like UD, right? You know, UD, our partner. Like every time he get a rebound, that's a new Heat record. So I used to be, even now I be messing with him like, hey boy, I seen you got in, get you a new, you know, put a new record. But like, that's for the Heat.

You got it for the entire—

logo. Like, that is insane to be like, like you say, got so much left in the tank. And it's like, 'cause UD tell me, he said, every time I get a rebound, that's a new record. Like, that's legit. Like, that's a bar. That's crazy.

It is wild. And I do know just because like, it's that weird, like career type accomplishment, but I still, I'm in my prime. Like, and so it's weird, like to celebrate something that, So early. Was meaningful to me 'cause it's how I play, it's what I've been working on my entire life. But see how far I can stretch it. Like everybody's talking about 4,000, we'll see. Like I'm just enjoying the moment, man.

That's just favor though. Like you say, to have it happen in the Garden, like, come on, bro. Like Ray there, Reggie calling the game. Like, you can't line it up. Like you said, you can't script it no better than that. That was special.

No better.

Is learning how to shoot like a family recipe, like a secret recipe, like in the family?

I mean, yeah, it's a prerequisite. Even my sister, my wife didn't even grow up playing basketball, but she can get out there and knock it down.

She got the form.

Yeah, it's obviously in our DNA and our blood and just loving basketball. You know, we've been around it our entire life. I guess talent can take you so far.

Yeah.

And we all know that, but you know, to develop a real skill around, you know, something like that. It's just the reps and you got to love it. So the natural ability is amazing. That's why I fell in love with the game early, but you know, the reps and the work that we all put in to get to where we got in the league, like it's, that's the special sauce right there.

Y'all can't tell nobody the secret recipe, like the family recipe.

Nah, it's—

Do Damon Lee get the— do Damon Lee get the— do he get it? Do Lee get it?

So yeah, by osmosis, right?

He's— Do he get it?

My favorite, D. Lee's story, like we were in New Orleans last year and he was playing big minutes for us and he had a breakout game, I think he had like 27, 28, something like that. And he was doing the post-game conference or post-game interview walking off the court. And I was in there with him. And so the reporter's asking us questions back and forth. And Mike Brown, who's our assistant coach now, he comes up behind him. He like, "Oh, them Curry boys can shoot, huh?

Them Curry boys can shoot." D.

Lee turned around and said, "Uh, Lee, so you better get my name right." I got the name right. It's a Lee boy. So he, yeah, he got a ratchet though, for sure. Toronto.

Like, how was Toronto? Do you remember?

I love Toronto.

You remember a lot of it?

A lot of it.

I love it. And what was the transition like from Toronto, like back to like the States and like Charlotte and stuff?

It was different. I love the city. So diverse. There's so much culture there. The Raptors, that was in the middle of insanity. So every game was, It was unreal. It was just too cold. We were just talking about that. It was just way too cold. But I lived up there for 3 years while my dad was finishing up his career. The adjustment was kind of cool playing basketball. I was in what they say grade 8 and I was playing against—

You played against Corey Joseph and Kelly Olynyk?

Yeah.

So they were all, we were all, I was playing for the Toronto Five-O. I can't remember which teams they were playing for, but we had like the provincial championships there in London, Ontario. Play against the best of the best in Ontario. It was a different, it was, I mean, it's basketball, it's basketball, but it was also kind of a nice shot for me to get away from North Carolina where I was playing AAU and stuff to just get a little bit of a different competition, a little different vibe, different style of basketball and build my confidence from there. And then when I got back and started playing high school back in North Carolina, I think I was better off for it, but. Yeah. It was also like, I mean, you know, having my dad play in the league and watching him do what he did. Like we talked about the love of shooting. Me and my brother would go up to the, at the Eric Kenneson, we'd go up to the practice facility and we'd shoot for the first half. And then we'd go watch the second half. And so it's kinda like we were junkies. We wanted to just get shots up and play one-on-one and work on our game. But we also wanted to go out and watch the best of the best do what they did. So it was, I was blessed growing up that way. Like always having the opportunity to go play and be around and be able to see the best do what they do and be inspired by it. So—

Like, tell me about that. 'Cause I feel like that's like a, I don't know what type of advantage or what it does, but I feel like kids that get a chance to grow up around that, like, you know what I'm saying? You going to games with your dad. They got video of you sitting, watching your dad win a 3-point, you know, be in a 3-point contest and be at All-Star Weekend. You being around all that greatness. I feel like that just, like you say, like osmosis, like you just soaking everything up and you getting an unfair, like you getting to look at the test before you gotta come take it way before. And it's like, can you remember and retain a lot of that stuff? But what do you think that is?

Absolutely.

It's all of that. It's, you know, the IQ of the game and seeing how different guys approach it. Like there's a lot of different styles. We all know that. And, you get to just see it every day and kind of see how guys develop throughout their careers and get better. And I was always watching everything, like how guys practice, how they, you know, treated people in the locker room, how they, what kind of energy they show up with to the games, you know, and then see how that produced on the court. I also feel like it's kind of like an either or situation for me. When you grow up in the league, either you got a crazy sense of entitlement, like—

Right, right.

'Cause like your pops was playing and like, oh, I'm going to be here. I'm supposed to be here because he did.

We've all seen it.

Or it's the, gratitude of like, damn, they're the best 450 basketball players in the world. And I know what my dad went through to get there. Like, I gotta work my ass off to get there myself. And like, if I don't, you know, it's a wasted opportunity. You know, so like, it kind of, that's up to you. That's up to how you approach it. And I'm appreciative of my parents for giving us a solid foundation of how we can respect the game in that front. Cause nothing was easy for me in my basketball journey.

Like, you know, physically it was late bloomer, all that.

That type of stuff. But I got to see it and that was definitely a blessing.

I wanna go back to high school. You said you were a late bloomer, right? And tell me about how your psyche was. 'Cause like you said, it's gotta be, you know, kind of a demonstrative thing. Like you said, you an NBA player's son.

Yeah.

So for you, at what point did you feel like it started to click for you? Even though you still only had, you know, so many, offers and things like that, what point did you feel like for you in your mind, it started to work?

I mean, honestly, not till like halfway through my senior year of high school. I went through the AAU circus from— so that's one other thing about me. I played AAU till I was 13. And then I didn't play until I was 17. And those 3 years, I just played school ball. And a lot of it was because I was such a late bloomer, like physically I could not keep up. And you know, AAU, Like if you're fast, the strongest, tallest, you're probably gonna shine. You know, the skilled guy isn't really necessarily highlighted like that at that level. And so it wasn't doing me any good to get out there and just get bulldozed every game. So those 3 years, you know, I got to work on my game for what I knew in high school. Like I do pushups, situps, try to get a little stronger, but it wasn't, you know, nature was taking over. So, Once I got to 17, started playing AAU, travel circuits, all that, you started to size yourself up against, you know, the top. That's where the rankings started.

Right.

For me, like, that was such a big deal. 'Cause I wasn't ranked at all. And I was like, what can I do to get to at least like, you know, top 50 in my state?

Right.

Let's start there and work your way up. So you play against the best of the best. And I was a turnover machine. Like, I could shoot, I could score and all that, but I just could not, you know, manage the game. I was a competitor. Like I wasn't gonna back down, but it just didn't click. Senior year, we went to a high school tournament in Columbia, South Carolina, the Chick-fil-A Classic. And we played the school called Dunwoody from Georgia. And they had like Gony Lawal, Jody Meeks.

Mm, Jody.

Yeah. Some, some, you know, top prospects. And we made it to championship. We played against them. And everybody was talking about, you know, we overmatched like this and that. And I remember playing in that game and just kind of coming into my own from a confidence standpoint, from a physicality standpoint, just knowing what I was trying to do on the court, to run our team and score. And we got the win. And like, from that moment on, I was like, you know, these are the guys I'm gonna be playing against on the next level, regardless of where I'm at. And obviously choosing Davidson in a small Division I school, like I can play with the best of the best.

Yeah.

And I took that confidence and ran with it. So it helped to be able to, you know, play my way through some of those mistakes and those learning curves. And even when I got to college, like my freshman year, I got to play right away and had 13 turnovers in my first, my first game. Like I had to work through all of that and not lose confidence in myself. And, you know, and I got to pay, you know, reap the benefits of that later.

How was that to just be in college and, you know, going through all that and having a coach that believed in you, believed that you can do what you know you can do, what you doing now?

There is belief, but there's also the tough love. Like we all had coaches that, you know, like, why you always on me?

After them 13 assists, I mean, 13 turnovers, what was that talk like?

It was just a lot of yelling, a lot of, hearing my name and all that. But I'm thankful because like, I wanted it so bad that I was cool, like accepting being coached.

Mm-hmm.

Like I knew, I didn't know it all. I knew I had a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow, but I was okay with getting coached no matter how tough it was, no matter how embarrassing it was. And I'm thankful that, I accepted that early so that I could kind of go through those lumps and not lose confidence in myself. 'Cause you have a coach that believes in you is one thing, and they're gonna try to set you up for success, but you gotta walk into that and you gotta, you know, make them, you know, look like they know what they talking about, no matter how hard it is. And, or you can cower away from it and, you know, give into, you know, the defeat, like what you can't do on the floor or the failures that you have and all that type of stuff. And it's obviously easier said than done, but I'm thankful. And that's what I tell everybody, you know, be open to being coached. Cause you know, it's the only way you gonna get to your full potential. It's the only way you're gonna get exposed to where, you know, you can like look at yourself in the mirror and say, this is what I need to work on. This is the, you know, the strides that I can take to get to where I want to be. And kind of roll with that mindset.

Man, if it was ever anybody for kids out there to listen to, like you, you are the prototype, you know what I'm saying? Late bloomer, like you say, didn't have the confidence up until your senior year. 'Cause it's a lot, like you say, especially now, way more than when we were coming up. Like these kids now start getting ranked in 4th and 5th grade. It's like, how can they might not even play basketball by the time they get to 8th grade. Like, what are you ranking? It's like, they legit got 4th grade. Like I saw it first when they had Devin and all them. I'm like, they like, what rankings? So it's like, you know what I'm saying? For you to be, All of those things, not confident, not feeling like you good enough, but then you work and you become the, literally the greatest shooter ever. You know what I'm saying? They won MVPs, championships, all type of awards at the top level of basketball, period. So like you the prototype for people to see, like you on your own pace.

Yeah.

It ain't what everybody else want it to be. Sometimes it don't work like that. Like I say that about, you know, when we talking about our kids and stuff, people want this kid to do that. I say, man, everybody gonna do everything when they supposed to do it. They supposed to. We just have to be there to accept and support them.

Sometimes guys rush their contract, 'cause this'll be a guy that be with them and they see that guy kind of getting ahead on this year. He made the All-Star team, they get theyself in a rush and instead of going by their own pace.

So put that on like steroids, what these kids are going through now.

Yeah.

Like you said, from the earliest ages when they even play organized basketball, they getting ranked and getting compared and you gotta own your journey. You know, God gives you what's for you and you gotta walk in that. And for me, like, I didn't know it at the time, but like, that was just the perspective. 'Cause I love the game so much.

Yeah.

And even like getting to my, you know, into the league where you start looking at what other, like you said, what other people's playing times, what they accolades, what kind of money they getting and all that type of stuff. Like, that's, you're all human. We know, it's hard to not, observe and notice that stuff. But what's really important, making sure your priorities are straight and making sure you know what journey you on, what pace you on. Like you said, like, nah, that's what I try to tell all the rookies coming in right now, especially 'cause everything is so exposed and everything is so hyped and everything is just on blast. Like, I didn't even have Instagram when I was a rookie in the league. Like, it's crazy.

I tell people all the time, for me and him, it's kind of like, Like they talk about, man, if y'all was on social media, y'all would've been the shit. You know what I'm saying? I say, eh, it kind of goes both ways. I mean, like, we would've been great on one hand, but I say, I can see a lot of times where they dropped it. Like, listen, like I say, we, look, I mean, I feel like we probably would've been way more known, but it might've not been always for all the right reasons too. You know what I'm saying? We got to make a lot of mistakes that y'all generation can't make. As soon as y'all do it, it's out there.

Like, you know what I'm saying?

Like somebody at the practice or something like, "Oh boy, you got a whole wide—" Couple of black screens with the white font.

Like, "Hey." Straight up.

We didn't have like, you know, like camera phones was just, they hadn't even really hit back then.

They didn't even have color on the phone. They was like, "We still got the little green digital, black and green digital screen." We had two-way phones. It had a limit on numbers you can put in the phone and all that stuff.

It's game time.

These boys coming in now.

Let me ask you this. In college, you know, now you got your groove, you and your coach, you here and you know, it's buckets every night. And you know, Davidson ain't playing in a conference where they playing a top, one of the big time conference. So now you got them few games on your schedule that, oh, this might be a ranked team or this, they might not be ranked, but it's just a big name team. How competitive and how ready you was for them games? Cause it seemed like every time you played a game that it might be a potential you can be on TV or ESPN. Yeah, it was— You going for 40.

So that's why I appreciate my experience even more, like kind of similar what we talking about. I was kind of off the, off the map, off the radar while I was working on my game. And so like, you know, my freshman year, We weren't ranked at all. We weren't even close. Didn't play, we played a solid non-conference schedule early, but then we went through our conference and we were undefeated in con— sorry, we were, we lost one game in conference my freshman year. And that's when the buzz started. Then that parlayed into my sophomore year where we had, I think, 8 games in our non-conference schedule. We played Carolina, NC State, Duke, UCLA, NC State. And we played all those teams early 'cause we knew we were good. And we knew we needed to get tested early to figure out who we were and get exposed a little bit. 'Cause we only, I think we lost all of those games. But then you get to, you get prepared for, if we get through conference and do what we need to do and get to the tournament, like that's our time to show, you know, people what we're really about. And that's exactly what the formula was. And that's how it worked. But to your question, like, I loved every bit of that. Cause it goes back to, you know, I was playing at you, like I knew those guys that were in my class and, you know, that got those high D1 offers. And I knew I could compete with them. And so can our team, if we figure out, you know, have confidence in who we are, even though we didn't win, like, I love that, that environment. I love that stage. And it prepared me for that tournament run, which was, you know, It was insane for us to get one shot away from the Final Four and lose to the eventual champs in Kansas. And that's when it became a show and that's when it became good prep for the next level in the league. 'Cause everywhere we went, my junior year, it was packed to the nosebleeds and there was a buzz. It was dope.

Just to know that you started where you started and then you got it and you still like, you here, you at Davidson. You know what I'm saying? You not that dude. 'Cause I could remember when I, like you say, when you burst onto the map, everybody like, we watching like, man, you gotta check him out. He getting, like, why he at Davidson though? Like, who missed out? Like, what happened? How is he at Davidson?

So many people gotta get fired. You didn't see this.

I loved it. 'Cause it was a nice balance of like, nothing really changed back on, like we had 1,800 students at campus. And so like, you know everybody. We know everybody.

That's a high school.

Exactly. So you go play, run the tournament, you know, we beat Gonzaga and Georgetown in the first two rounds. Then we get back to campus and it's like, there's a celebration, but people got class on Monday. It's like, you know, and so do we. So we show up and, nothing really changes. So it gave us a nice perspective of, you know, let's keep the main thing, the main thing. Let's keep enjoying this moment. But, you know, we still have our culture here. That's freaking dope. And we're representing it to the fullest on the biggest of stages. So I enjoyed it.

Take me back to the actual, to your draft night, right? 'Cause that's like all of our, you know, biggest day ever up to that point. You know what I'm saying? So for you, you know what I'm saying? To have a pops that played in the league, like, How did you feel? You know what I'm saying? Like now this is your dad and your family and everybody coming to you for your big night. And this is now you taking the family business to the next level. And it's your turn. Like, tell me what that feel like after, you know, you done been in Toronto, Charlotte, you following your dad, support your dad. Now it's his turn to start doing that for you.

It was surreal. And I say that because when you're so close to it for your whole life, Right. Like you say, you see it through his eyes. And when it's you, it didn't even make sense. It was like, I know I've been working on my whole life for this moment, but it didn't make sense. Like it was happening. And that night was gonna be the celebration of like him passing the torch.

Straight up.

To me, to start my own career, my own journey. And that was one of his biggest pieces of advice is like, you know, you're gonna get compared and you're gonna have the shadow and all that stuff, but you have to just live in your own journey and whatever that means, like embrace it. And that night was the start of it. It was an emotional night though. It was his birthday. Mm. It was the night Michael Jackson died. So it was like all that was happening and I was getting, it was just a whole lot going on. And then, you know, got drafted by the Warriors. And all the Knick fans started booing. [LAUGHTER] 'Cause they wanted me to drop to number 8. So I had a lot of emotions going on that night, but I just appreciated like, you know, the fact that I was able to, you know, realize a dream obviously and start your career. I didn't know much about the Bay, but I was ready to go out there and figure it out.

So with that being said, right, we all know like, quietly when this process is going on, we have our places that we would, I mean, we know we can't control it, but like, hey, I would like to play there, whatever. Remember when we was coming, I wanted to go to Houston. Me and you wanted to go to Houston.

Definitely did.

Rudy T. Rudy T. Rudy T. Rudy T.

Rudy T. Rudy T. Let them get back. Look, all ISO.

We know how to do that.

We friends.

We love to go play with franchise, whatever, right? So for you, when you get, like you say, it was emotional. —and you didn't know nothing about the Bay. You said you wanted to play for the Knicks. Like, how did you feel when everything went down?

So that draft process is wild. Like, there's some new narrative every day. There's some new guarantee on the draft board or some trade rumor. Like, every day it was something different. But through that whole process, like, I talked to Mike D'Antoni, who was the coach of the Knicks at the time. They had Gallinari, who was their young prospect. And the whole conversation was like, oh, we'll put you, Gallinari, David Lee was there. I was there. Yeah, exactly. That would be the vibe. Like, D'Antonio put you in all the right positions to be successful. I could be like Nash, sorry, I could be like Nash 2.0 when he was in Phoenix and all that type of stuff. So that was a conversation. And being in New York added to it, 'cause you're right there.

You got you hyped.

I was sitting there and Blake goes one, seems to be James Harden, Tyreek Evans, and then it's number 5 and Minnesota's got the 2 picks in a row. So I'm like, all right, just get through these 2. 'Cause they got 2 picks in a row and there's guarantee, like I ain't really know, I ain't talk to Golden State like that. It's gonna be number 8. So they went Rubio and Johnny Flynn. And vice versa. And so I'm like, all right, this is it. And like the next 5 minutes felt like an eternity. 'Cause you waiting, like the clock and the green room and all that. And then David Stern came out, said my name and it didn't like, I heard my name, but it was like, what?

I ain't even talk to them. It always be the team that you don't even fuck with.

Did you work out for them?

Nah, I didn't.

Yeah, we didn't work out. We was trying to avoid them.

We trying to avoid them.

No way they gonna pick us. Like they won the series.

—anyone trying to go there? Man, it'll always be the team like that. They be lurking. That's what it be.

History repeat itself. It's crazy. So then you, then, but then after that, you just trying to make sense of it on the fly. Cause it was just like, it's the mix of that whirlwind media in the back, about 45 to an hour.

It's crazy.

On the next flight, next morning out to the Bay. But that was a definite lesson in care for what you wish for.

When you got drafted, they had a guard that was a bucket getter already there. The homie Monta Ellis.

My man.

Like, what are some of the things you learned from him when you got to the league? 'Cause he was one of them boys when you got to the league getting them buckets.

He was my, well, just on a funny tip, he was my favorite like one-liner dude.

Real quiet, but it hit you.

Real quiet, real quiet shoot around. He'd be a little stiff, a little slow to get going. And somebody calling him, "Mante, you gonna run this play?" He'd be like, "I don't smell no popcorn popping, do you? You want it now or you want it later?" You want it now or you want it later? That's my favorite line. So I still use that to this day. But he was like, His athleticism and just the way that he, you know, just put pressure on teams, on defenses, it was just unreal. Like you look up and he had like the quietest 40 of all time just 'cause it was all just downhill, blow by you, finishes all over the place.

Sneaky pull up.

Sneaky pull up, you know, dunk on somebody real quick. He dunk on somebody too. But you like, nobody could stay in front of him.

Right.

And it was a cool thing to see like the speed of the NBA. Like watching, playing with him and watching him. 'Cause I didn't have that athleticism. And I was like, just in awe of—

Right.

He could get anywhere he wanted to on the floor. And just his confidence in himself. Like it was, I didn't know much about the We Believe era and like him being the young guy on that team.

Yeah.

Sixth man, you know.

Yeah.

And all that and the most improved and being a huge part of that team's success.

All the work he put in.

Yeah.

And the work they like coming outta high school and all that. Until when I got there, he was the vet at like 24, 25. And you know, he had to come into that responsibility really quick. And you know, I just playing off of him those first years, like we didn't really know who we were as a backcourt and our identity. 'Cause you know, it was a kind of a period of transition, but in terms of like enjoying playing basketball and that stage and seeing somebody's talent that's totally separate or different the way that I play, like it was dope.

How was it like, I know you can go to a lot of NBA teams, but it seemed like the Warriors was fit for you. You know what I'm saying? Don Nelson. Don Nelson, yeah. Don Nelson is one of them guys that kind of started, for real, is the godfather starting of like, man, we finna run and gun and we finna run it up. So if y'all ain't gonna scope it, y'all ain't gonna keep up. And that's just like the perfect recipe for your, your game and the way you play.

Yeah.

To get in the organization like that and be there with people who believe in that type of style of play. How was that for you?

It was good. I think I talked about it a little bit ago. I always wanted to play in New York. That was kind of how the draft was set up and that whole process. But I knew Don Nelson and his style. And when I got there, CJ Watson and Anthony Morrow were the two young guys that had made the team from the year before. They went through the—

Mo Sho.

Exactly. And they told me like, when I first got to camp, like, yo, you gonna love this system. Cause it's all about just playing fast. Everybody's gonna get a look, you know, he wants you to score, be aggressive offensively. And they weren't lying. Like in the training camp, we may have done one defensive drill. The rest was just roll the ball out, you know, scrimmage. He would call out sets, we'd run them. And he was all about like matchups too. So it was kind of cool, like night in, night out.

You go at him.

You go at whoever and he tried to, you know, push, press the right buttons on that front. So it expanded my offensive, like horizon really quickly. Cause once I really, I started at the beginning of my rookie year, got pulled out the rotation for about a month. Then I got back in. And once I got back in, like, I kind of just hit a period of just another level of offensive, like efficiency and just coming to my own confidence-wise of what I could do. And everybody, like everybody was a threat, like kick it to you, shoot, kick it back, you shoot, let's play fast. Only thing was like, we changed defenses every night. We didn't know what our identity was. And it was just a cool, I got a little bit of every experience my rookie year. It was sad that was his last year coaching. We were chasing the wins for him to pass Lenny Wilkins that year. So it was weird. Like, I think we won like 23, 25 games or something like that. But every game felt like important 'cause it was about getting him the record.

Yeah, getting the win before he retired.

Yeah, so it added a little bit of intensity to it. Gave us something to play for.

Like when you first got in the league, you was like, man, I'm 6'9" and I was a buck 90. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't even 200 pounds. Around when I got drafted and, you know, skinny kid and, you know, it's a physical game out there. But when I seen you, you know, you always size somebody up. When, as soon as you see 'em, you instantly size 'em up and see how they— but I noticed it on TV. But when I seen you in person, I was like, yeah, that's it. I was seeing your arms, your physique, how you change. When you decided to go to the weight room and go to the weight room heavy, 'cause you know us skinny guys, we'll go to the weight room, but we ain't going to get nothing done.

You don't go to the weight room. He went to the weight room all summer. He become Eddie Murphy in the locker room. He got all jokes.

And not a curl, nothing that hopped on these arms. You know what I'm saying? But then you see that one summer when you come back and your whole physique changed. And I seen it in you and your strength. And I noticed just now when you be running off screens and stuff, you're a little bit more stronger for them to— they can't hold you no more.

Absolutely. Part of that was a reaction to like how defenses were guarding me and the physicality of the league. That adjustment from college is a shock. The biggest thing was like, I knew I could shoot the ball and I knew I was kind of like finesse was a part of my game and I could, you know, get away with it for only so long. But when we started getting to the playoffs and you realize how much the game changes at that point, everything slows down, becomes more of a half-court game. There's fewer possessions. You know, it was way more physical, less foul calls, all that stuff. That's when I realized how much of an advantage it would be for me to get a little stronger. Not to say like gain weight, but just be able to hold my own. If I'm driving to the lane, somebody knocked me, I'm not just, you know, falling over. Or, you know, you get double teamed, be able to pass it out, all that type of stuff. The biggest thing was when I got down into the lane, like I could not make that pass.

All the way to the 3-point line.

I couldn't get it out there.

Not enough, ugh.

I don't know, the ball is here. I couldn't get it here and throw it over there. That's where, you know, some of the deficiencies were. So balancing, like, being strong and working on your core, all that stuff that helps you, you know, get through an 82-game season, get through the playoffs and all that, I've just added to that foundation.

I feel like once I got stronger and I really took the weight room serious, it was like I got new superpowers. Straight up.

Like from game to game too, you don't get as tired.

Yeah. Like all that type of stuff. Like you got new superpowers when you just kind of add something on to your package. Like y'all first championship run, like a lot of people didn't have y'all like winning it. And not only didn't have y'all winning it, as soon as y'all got to the championship against LeBron, it's like, oh no, ain't no way in. And hell, like just take us through that, just that year when like everything just clicked.

I mean, like it did the first year, 2 years before, when we first made the playoffs in 2013, played, we beat Denver as a 6th seed. And then we lost to San Antonio in 6. And then the next year we lost to the Clippers in 7, the first round. Everything had been building in terms of, you know, understanding who we were, what we needed to tweak a little bit to take that next step. It was bittersweet all the way around. 'Cause I make sure I talk about every time we talk about that championship is 'cause those 3 years before with Mark Jackson as our coach.

Right.

Was so like valuable and instrumental to our success because he established like a defensive mindset and like an attitude and identity around us. That when he passed the torch off, I'll say that politely, to Steve, Steve brought another level of like an outsider perspective, having watched us for 3 years and his championship experience, you know, playing for Phil, playing for Popovich, playing with MJ and Tim Duncan to help us get there. And everybody's gonna talk about like any championship team, what had to go right for you to win a championship, no matter what year it is.

Yeah.

But all those things, you have to be able to put yourself in position to the ball to bounce, for the ball to bounce your way, for you to even have an opportunity in those series to be a serious threat, to beat anybody in the league. And that was the confidence that we had. So, going through that playoff run, nothing felt out of the ordinary, but you also don't know what it takes until you finally get there. Right. That's like, yeah. That game 6 in Cleveland was just like an out-of-body experience. 'Cause you're trying to keep things normal. You're trying to, you know, not do anything special. Trying to win. Trying to win. And you know, like the stakes are. And everything that goes right, you're like, oh shoot. Oh shoot. Oh shoot. We about to win this thing. Like, it's just natural, just progression of getting to the mountaintop. So that team was special too. Like, 1 through 15. We had a great mix of a young core and some amazing veterans that have been around the league for a while.

And your Illinois boys over there, nah.

You know, S. Dot. Dot.

But this is what I wanna know. Like, 'cause like, I felt like this, even though we didn't win it when we were in Phoenix and you know, like you say, outta nowhere, we were expected to be the last place in the Pacific. So, but like, you get to that certain point in the season where, you know, you guys in the locker room, Y'all started looking around each other like, wait a minute. Like, it was like, is this shit kind of doing this? Like, and you know, like, so like—

And a lot of wins.

So like, you know, that year we jumped over and seized 220. It was a lot of back and forth. Like, oh, can they? And it was like, can they? And it was like, at first we was like, can we? Like, and then it was like, every time you look up, we icing with 8 minutes to go. We blowing people out. So like, at a certain point, like 3 quarters through the season, after we had then came outta All-Star, And we still smoking people and everybody like, they don't know what's happening. We start looking at each other like, fellas, like.

This is real.

This might be official. Like, so at what point—

And to get to that point, you have to be so locked in on the day to day that you can't really, you can let your mind drift a little bit.

Right.

But April, May, June, so far away. Like even where we sitting right now, it's, you know, we have 40-something games.

Right.

And so much basketball to play. 3 more months. Exactly. Like you said, like you're so locked into that day to day to win 62 games in a season. Like that's hard.

Yeah, it is.

And with the effort and then the commitment and focus it takes, like you can't even allow yourself to think like, oh, what's a playoff matchup about to be like? What's that time of the season? But everything matters to get there. So it's dope to like, to hear that. 'Cause you know, like even if you get it done or you don't, the process is still the same.

Yeah.

You start to look at other teams in the league. Like, who's the other best? Oh, we match up nice. Cool. Like, oh, we beat them in the regular season. Cool. It don't mean nothing until you get to the playoffs and go through that.

So— Could you have foreseen having that type of season and that type of success 3, 4 years ago when you was going through the ankle injuries and like, take us inside of that. Cause like, he'd been through injuries. I've been through injuries and that, people don't understand how hard that is to overcome. And like, for you to overcome that to the level that you have, 'cause like, you know, that was when like, you obviously didn't get a big deal because of that. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like those things affected everything. So, and people don't know that us as humans, the human part of us as an athlete, we doubt and we question ourselves, especially when something happens over and over again.

Straight up. Like, The one refreshing part of seeing Klay go through what he went through these last 2 and a half years is the reminder of like, we all have to work hard. Off-seasons are a grind, you know, practices, travel, like all the stresses of, you know, being a professional athlete. Rehab is the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. Like, bar none.

Man, they don't understand.

It's 2, 3 times the amount of time that you put in. It's monotonous. You're usually isolated. Like it's just you going through it.

Away from the team.

Away from the team. Like that is the hardest thing to deal with. So everything you just said, like all you wanna do is just play. Like you don't really care what the context is. I just wanna be healthy enough to play basketball and what it takes to get through injuries, no matter what they are. They test you, they test everything, how much the game matters, your perseverance and all that type of stuff. So when I was going through my ankle stuff, like, No, I couldn't even imagine the heights that we would get to. 'Cause I was just going to the rehab facility every day, seeing the same crew who was so invested in my process, but I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. And obviously it paid off, but it is the hardest thing you have to go through as an athlete, no matter what the injury is. Yeah.

How was it like playing against KD and they almost finna beat you the year before? And then that first game with you, Klay, KD, and y'all standing for a jump ball like, ooh, we finna fuck somebody up this year. He actually is here. It's gonna be, it's gonna go down. Like, how was that?

We cheat.

Like that, that feeling.

You can't even play with that. Look, when y'all got on the team, you had to play the video game. I said, hold on. I'mma just say—

I know, not a preseason game, but like, all right, this one actually counts.

It's cheating if you get the Warriors in a video game.

Forget who we played. I know, I forget who we played that first regular season game. 'Cause I had that moment and you like looking around like, oh my God. But there's also, there's also like, and me, I might have just internalized this as the point guard and like the guy that felt like I had to get everybody involved. There's a little insecurity of like, there's so much talent. Is this gonna work? 'Cause I'm like, all right, I'm starting to count shots. Like, all right, he gonna get 20, he gonna get 9, all right, 7. All right, where, how we gonna get we gonna do this. So those thoughts were starting to creep in early in the process. And if you think, if you look back at first year, game 1 through like Christmas Day game, it was not pretty. Like we were all type of inconsistent. Our record was solid, but it just didn't look like— It wasn't nice, nice. Yeah.

Didn't look clean.

And a lot of that, you know, I assumed a lot of that responsibility and Draymond as well, like trying to figure out how to, to make a mess. 'Cause you like, in theory, you shouldn't have to worry about Steph, Klay, or KD getting shots. Like—

Right.

That shouldn't be an issue. And you shouldn't worry about Draymond being able to facilitate a lot of that, but it wasn't as seamless as people might think. But then he got hurt right after All-Star break and Matt Barnes, you know, joined the team. And from that point, like KD was rehabbing, trying to get ready for the playoffs. And we kind of had to revert back to the year before and how we played.

Mm-hmm.

And then knowing that everything was gonna change again when KD got back right before the playoffs started. So it was just a lot of stuff going on, but we knew like the talent was there, obviously. And you know, if we show up and do what we supposed to do, everybody locked in, like we should not lose, but it was also, You know, again, 9, it was 6, 7 months of that. Every day you trying to make sure it works. 'Cause if you don't, you gonna look like some idiots. Like, but I figured it out.

Seeing him, 'cause like, you know, he's one of the best players in the league. He's in the same, you know, category as you and LeBron and all these other guys.

But to see it in person, all respect in the world to how, great all-time great scorer he is. Like he gets it any and every type of way. And you see it on the court and like you try to compliment each other extremely well in terms of how we were trying to win games. The best part about it was practice because me, him, and Klay, like trying to work on our craft. Sometimes we work together, sometimes we'd be on our separate courts, but we always be watching each other. And you always be like trying to like one-up, level up the intensity, level up the— Mm-hmm. The approach to the game. And like, that's such a dope environment to come to work every day. Cause you got Klay Thompson, you got Kevin Durant, myself. Like we all put ourselves in like the great score category. Like you get to watch the work that goes into it every day. And having seen K, like I've seen Klay for 10 years, but to see KD and his approach on the day-to-day, like I see the results. I know like, the work that he puts in, but to see it is different. And that elevated all of us.

That's what he was saying. We asked him about that when we had him on. He was like, dude, to just to watch the way that these dudes could shoot every, like every single day. He was like, that made me feel like, yo, like when you in the gym and you got two dudes that could shoot the way y'all could shoot. He like, bro, I had to like, they made me become a better shooter just trying to keep pace. Like if we doing any drills or this or that, it's like, Y'all ain't missing. He feel like he can't miss.

It's like when you were growing up, you wanted to find the best in your city, the best wherever to go find the best games. 'Cause you knew like that was gonna elevate. You couldn't just, you know, live off of, you know, the crumbs of the competition. Like you actually gotta go find the best. 'Cause that's gonna sharpen your toolkit even more.

Did you know Klay before he got to?

No, so Klay knew Seth before he knew me. So they were on the same U19 team. And they went to, I think, New Zealand and they won gold. So I knew a little bit about Klay through him. And then he got drafted and that was the first time I actually met him when he came out to the Bay.

Let's talk about like, like Klay, like the other night, just to see Klay come out and he got him a body or two, you know what I'm saying?

That was—

Was that scary or what? After you finished got hype, Was you like, man.

I didn't see him come down. 'Cause we talked about this. He'd been out for 970-something days, 2 and a half years. And he had talked about it. He was like, I can still, we all know I can still shoot. I'm like, yeah. I'm gonna figure out how to move, get off the dribble stuff. Like, yeah, I'm sure that'll come. He's like, the last thing that's gonna come is meeting people at the rim, getting a couple bodies. I'm like, yeah, don't press yourself. Just stay within yourself. It took that man 9 minutes. And he was crossing over, going in the lane. And when he dunked it, like I lost it. I was on the bench going crazy, everybody. But then I saw the replay again and you see him dunk and like come down on the floor. He got up and he was like, "Oh, I'm back." So it was, he was just getting to it.

Just getting to it. He sure looked like as he was going, it looked like he was getting his feet together like, "Fuck it." I'm just gonna go.

That's it.

That's exactly, I'm out here, I might as well. It's cool. Obviously it's amazing to see him back and have him back.

Straight up to have him back and all that, man. I thought that was just dope how Draymond got in the game and just to see y'all guys together, like, man, that's just—

It's 10 years together.

Yeah, that's just a dope look.

That's crazy.

And the fans, man, just the love they give him, man. That's what he deserves, man. 'Cause he one of the ones.

Klay is the, he has become the most interesting man in the NBA. Like, the Dos Equis, man.

Yeah, he definitely the Dos Equis. That's what we all know now. The Dos Equis.

He unmatched. Like if unbothered was a person, that's Klay.

Captain Klay with his boat, the dog, and reading the newspaper before the game.

Like he took his boat to and from the Klay Day game. I told you, man, the man left on his boat, came back, caught some bodies, and then got back on the boat.

That's a bar. He is unbelievable. We all, you know, we've been watching this game for so long and we love everything about the game. And some of the dopest nicknames come from this game. You know, you got the Splash Brothers.

Yeah.

You got Babyface Assassin. You know, which individual one you like the most? And was it any other thing that you heard that you was like, oh man, that might be it. And then Splash Brothers came.

Splash Bros at the top. Baby Faces on an individual base. That's the first one I had heard for myself when I was in college. And I love that one. That one got the nod from Kobe in terms of my killer instinct.

Yeah.

That was love. I've heard the Human Torch before, which was solid. It was solid. But other than that, yeah, that's the list right there.

I wanna know, did you know Draymond before he got to the team?

No, I went and saw, I met Draymond once before he got to the team. Actually my junior year, I was on the All-American team and I got to go to the Final Four as part of the ceremony or whatever. And I watched them play in the Final Four. I think that was his freshman year. But I didn't meet him again until he got to the Bay. And from that point on, like, he obviously makes his presence felt no matter what room he walk into. And that was the vibe as soon as he stepped foot as a rookie out in the Bay. But that's my dog. Like, the experiences we've had on and off the floor, championships we won, how we've grown on and off the court, like, it's crazy just to know. You know, where he came from as a, what, 32nd pick?

Exactly.

And not really knowing what position he was gonna play. A lot of questions. This is like, ain't no questions now.

We know like you can be on the team and like on the stat sheet, it don't show the impact that you actually brought to the game. And like with Draymond, they try to give him, and a lot of people try to not, —what they don't see as basketball players. We as basketball players see, but the casual fan don't see what he actually brings to the table. Like, how important is he is to— They don't understand it. —to, like, over these years of these championships, like, his verbal, his leadership. And, you know, we all a little bit crazy, you know? But it's okay, you know?

Yes, sir.

As long as you love us the way we is, everything is all good.

You won't find no change. Championship team that ain't have somebody.

Yeah.

That's, we could do a deep dive on exactly what's the recipe for a championship roster. But your comment about what not showing up on the stat sheet affecting winning, that was a narrative about him from day one. And honestly, sometimes it wouldn't show up in the stat sheet. He played 12, 15, 16 minutes and he'd have 4 rebounds and 2 points and maybe an assist, but you would, He like, you watch the game and you see him everywhere. Feel his presence. Yeah. And he could do that in just spot moments, you know, his rookie year. And then the second year, he got a little bit more playing time and more opportunity. But now, like, I guess you could argue his stat sheet, stat line doesn't look like a perennial All-Star, but, you know, he's a stat sheet stuffer. Like, he'll have, he, we always wait for like the Draymond's the first in however many years to have, you know, like 7 categories and stuff that he did. It's like, bro.

How he do all that? He ain't a shot blocker, but he's there every time you get beat. Anytime any of them guards get beat, he's there every time. And that's not gonna show up on nobody's stat sheet, maybe in the field room. But if you got a guy that's gonna be there every time you be beat.

As creative as I am on offense and like stuff you try to do, if you take that same approach and you add it, like whatever that means defensively, that is Draymond. Like he'll see things, he'll make reads, he'll make rotations that don't make any sense. In the scheme of how you would coach somebody, but he knows where to be at the right time. And you wouldn't even ask somebody to even try to do it. Like, that's how crazy it is sometimes. He'll guard 3 people in 5 seconds and affect every single part of their cuts, their moves, and like affect the shot at the rim and all that type of stuff. And then your other point about leadership and just the competitive, you know, fire, the voice in the locker room, holding people accountable. That's always been there. And it's obviously, you know, gotten more experienced and more polished in terms of like how to be able to lead guys 1 through 15, no matter what part of the season we're in, all knowing that everything that we're doing is geared towards winning a championship. And yeah, anybody who knows basketball, anybody who's either played or watched the game knows what the hell they talking about.

Stephen Curry.

That dude. Stephen Curry is all-time great.

Y'all went back to back though, right?

Yeah, they went back to back.

They went back to, yeah, they went back to back.

Tell me that, how hard was it to repeat, especially with, you know, all the attention that was on you guys' team and the way everything came together? Like, how difficult was that to manage?

It's difficult because, It makes the regular season just that much harder when you come off a championship run, you go through the off-season, everybody's hyping y'all up, celebrating, all that. You come back to training camp, everybody's excited to be back. And then you're like, oh, it's 82 games before the games that matter.

Right.

But you know, like you can't have any slippage on what got you there. And, but it's just like, it's human nature. It's just so hard to pace yourself. Through that '82. And so that, I mean, it's difficult and it requires a lot of adjustments and readjustments throughout the season. A lot of different motivational tactics from Coach to keep the season fresh and all that type of stuff.

Yeah.

And then you get to the playoffs and that's when, that's when you're at your best. 'Cause you've been there before. And especially we had the same team back like for the most part, that chemistry, it clicks. And so, yeah, that's why I'm so impressed. Like, even though we didn't win in '16, '15, '16, like coming back and starting the year off 24-0, it was like one of the—

It's crazy.

Craziest accomplishments we have because you have that hype from the season, from the off-season, all that, and you need the championship glow. And like to sustain that focus for as long as we did. And you know, And we all know how that season went. Like, it's pretty, pretty impressive.

Do you on purpose? Like, 'cause I be seeing like a lot of guys when they get to getting in they shit, they get to, you know, making them tough faces and, you know, flexing and all that stuff. But you, you smile. You smile. Like, it's a thing when you getting your ass butt, you see they down there being tough. But like, you just smiling and he kicking my ass. My ass, like what, what you—

I was talking to—

Why you chose the approach of smiling?

It's my natural, like, just disposition. I have fun no matter where I'm at. I'm always smiling, joking, laughing. But I was talking to Jordan Poole actually today. And he was, he asked me like, yo, what's your take on trash talking? And I was, I actually thought about it. I was like, most of my trash talking is reactive. Like if you say something to me, I'll say something back, but I'm not out here like huffing and puffing, woofing. But I was like, I'm good for a facial expression or a smile though. That's my trash talking. Like in terms of when I'm feeling good and enjoying myself. And I know I did something like that, the smile's gonna come out or the this face.

I'm on the record, whether it's at NBA TV, Turner is somewhere talking about how I would've been fought him. If I had to play him. I'm smiling.

I gotta make him mad.

All the facial expressions. I don't care. Even like, you ain't gotta be doing it at me. If I'm guarding you and you did it, I took it that way. Like, it was personal. And nah, like, I don't look—

Let's see, I would've thrived off that.

Running and doing all this. Then he go smile and shit me. I'm like, somebody better trip him. You better trip his ass before I get to him. Like, nah. One time, they just be like, damn, who just tackled Mike? Who was that? That was me. Something gonna happen on my turn. "This is on my terms. You ain't make me foul that time.

I decided I was gonna foul." That is so true. That's so true. One year after y'all played every game, I looked forward to y'all, your press conference. 'Cause Miss Riley—

Oh yeah.

Was on the press conference and it just made my day every time I seen y'all play and just to see her talk. And I'm waiting to see her talk like it's inside the NBA. How was that for you? You know, I seen your son give Klay the ball at the end of the historic night to have— you went through them locker rooms and you done brought that playground envir— you done been in that playground environment of an NBA arena to bring your kids in and to see your kids enjoying it the way they— that's they own little playground. That's the other playground.

It gives me so much perspective in life, just in general, because we talk, So much about basketball and accolades and experiences and the process and all that, that is like so insignificant compared to the joy you see on your kid's face when they get to have an experience, you get to share that a little bit of you with them in that environment. That's, and like you said, 'cause I have videos of like Muggsy Bogues carrying me like an airplane through the—

Right.

Through the Hornet locker room when I was like 4 or 5. Sitting on Zo's lap at the 3-point contest, like those type of experiences that I don't necessarily remember, but I know like that was a part of just me having an amazing experience as a child and how blessed I was and all that. So be able to give that to them. It's also bittersweet. 'Cause it reminds me how old I am now. It's like, you see them get it.

You old.

I say old and all relative speaking, but it's just like, nah, I'm out there. My daughter's who was at the press conference is now about to turn 10. Yeah.

Hold on.

She don't even wanna come to locker room no more. 'Cause she got her own thing going on.

You know what I'm saying?

She don't wanna mess with— Yeah. I miss those days. It's special though, for sure. You know, just to be able to, again, just share a little bit of what you do and for them to actually, you know, my son, he threw the ball to Klay. Said, congratulations. Then he waited for 2 seconds. He said, gimme the ball back. I wanna play basketball. I was like, I love that. I love that.

How proud of Seth you are like to see his journey and to see him on this level. Like he here, he ain't going nowhere. Like he here and he gonna be here for a long time shooting that thing too. Especially like when, like when schools finally like, you made schools figure like, oh, it's in the blood. Yeah. Like, nah, we gotta, we can't let Seth go through this mug and go to Davidson or any of that. He gotta go somewhere.

So that's the thing. So he went, we went to the same high school my senior year. We played on the same team as his sophomore year. So when I got out, you know, went to Davidson and all that conversation started, it was my sophomore year in college that he was a senior in high school. And so he's like going through the same recruiting process and all that. And the same thing was happening. And he ended up at Liberty University.

That's what I'm about to say.

He didn't go to Stephen Curry's school. His freshman year, he played at Liberty University in the Big South. So it was the exact same kind of situation, but for him, his experience was a little different. They played crazy defenses against him in their conference, being like the box and one, triangles and two, like all that stuff to take him out. 'Cause he was killing like his whole year. So after his freshman year was over, he and my dad were talking about like, yo, knowing how Steph's career at Davidson went, like, if you're not playing in the tournament and not making that run, like, can you actually get enough attention to give yourself a chance to play in the league? And for him, like, he's such a confident dude. He's like, just get me on that stage, that high D1 situation. I'm gonna show you people what I'm about. And he got in, got Coach K's attention.

Did his thing.

Transferred and did his thing for the 3 years that he was there. And to see him go through that process and then get hit with, you know, an injury coming out of his senior year where he missed the draft process and all that and having to kind of start from scratch makes me even more proud of what he's accomplished because his path was even more uncertain than, than mine in terms of having to go on a training camp deal and go to, you know, two different G-Leagues. He had, I think, four different 10-day call-ups before he got his first deal in Sacramento.

Right. Yeah.

And then once he got an opportunity, he's always like, just give me an opportunity and I'll prove myself and I'll show y'all, you know, that I'm capable of playing on this level. And then from there, the rest is history. He's gotten better every single year.

Every year. Every year.

You see him this year in Philly, like, He's a go-to guy. Like he's a playmaker. He obviously can shoot the ball. He can defend. And it's just wild to know, like you said, he's here. He's a vet now.

We're NBA players and we have kids. So our kids instantly go in this pile of NBA kids. You know what I'm saying? So when you see like somebody like Seth, with all that expectation from your dad, from you to get the opportunity to do what he do and make it on that level to just put his own mark, man. Like us guys love to see that stuff. Like—

You understand how hard it is, man.

Yeah, it's hard. Like how hard it is. They be on you, miss a shot. Oh man, you can't shoot like Stephen Curry. You can't shoot like your daddy now.

You know what I'm saying?

It'd be crazy. And if you feed into that, it can mess your whole thing up, man. But I'm definitely proud of him, man. I love to see him play.

—thinking about it as he's saying that I played against your daddy and both his sons.

That's crazy.

That's crazy.

I mean, you old.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm blessed.

That's right.

That's right. I mean, I'm blessed to be here.

Control your narrative.

I ain't old.

We always want our name in the rap. You know, Stephen Curry with the shot, one of the biggest artists in the world and not others. You shot, man. And all that just, to hear your names in the culture, you know, it's part of us. That's like the process of being the man, like hearing your name and to hear like Drake and just other guys say your name in songs. Like, how did that feel?

I don't even know how to put that in words. It's surreal. Cause like the first one, they don't, nobody ever call you and tell you like, yo, I'm about to just pop up. Hey, I wrote this bar.

Leveled up so far that they passed like his wife and stuff in rap. Yeah. Yeah. It ain't just him at this point.

When I was talking about Cardi B, she had the line like, I think it said, I wanna get married like the Currys, Steph and Ayesha, but we is more like Belly, Tommy, and Keisha.

Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. I remember that.

That's another level.

Yeah.

But me and Drake actually talked about it. 'Cause I was, I asked that question like, you ain't like give a heads up. It's just, you know, them dropping this bar, you naming it, the whole deal. And obviously that song is unreal, but just to know like how much they appreciate, how much they're inspired and appreciate what you do that to the point where they, it's on the top of the mind when they're in the studio doing the whole process and all that. So that respect is so much back and forth. So I do need somebody to get like the playlist going of every mention.

Every mention.

Just so I can just have that in the archives.

That'll happen as soon as this episode.

Somebody gonna run that for you. Somebody gotta run that for me right quick.

This is what I wanna know. 'Cause I, you know, born and bred, I'm a Chicago kid. So I take offense to hearing that you think your Warriors team— was it with or without KD?

No, it's with.

With KD. I'm not really tripping whether it was with or without. I just wanna be sure for clarification of the world right now. You said y'all could beat MJ and the Bulls.

Yeah, I said it. And I told—

uh... The floor is yours. Explain.

Hey man, no, hey, I mean, it's the best team ever. It's the best place to sit. 'Cause I could be right. I could be wrong. And ain't everybody gonna be able to find it.

Yeah, nobody can ever, you know.

But the best part is I talked to MJ over the summer when I did an interview with him talking about golf, ironically. And he would be disappointed, I think, if I didn't have that confidence in my team.

Yeah, right.

Because if anybody is gonna try to measure up with him and the dynasty of the Bulls, you can't have no other attitude than that. So I love it though. As any hooped head and anybody who watched that team and know how great they were and how great he is, the greatest ever. Like, what are we talking about?

I'm just gonna be on the record. I'm going with MJ and the Bulls.

Wait, at least is it, how many wins can we get then? 'Cause I said Warriors dubs in 6, which you said like, you gotta give us a—

Jordan don't go 7.

That's what I'm saying. Mike don't do that. So I'm gonna give y'all—

He went on—

Mike ain't never with the game. Listen, Mike don't listen. This is what they gotta understand when we start. This is what I tell people. When we start talking about, I ain't gonna go into all of this, but I'm just saying.

They shouldn't ask me the question then.

Nah, I feel you. That's right. They shouldn't have. But I'm just like, when we, like he said, he, how many times he been there? 6.

6.

How many times he won?

I know.

6. Like, listen, I'm from Chicago where we all still firmly believe, had he not taken that break, we running 8, 9 of them off. Sitting there, like when he came fresh out, when he came from baseball and came back, we said, we won. I'm talking, he ain't played yet. He said, I'm back. We said, we won. That's how we felt. And we thought in Chicago, like, he back, we won. Scottie's still there, we good. Like, it's over.

Something about me just want, I just wanna know what that felt like. 'Cause like I grew up watching the Hornets and I don't know, my dad, that's a different, it's just a different fan experience, right? It's a new team. They got to the second round of conference finals. Couple times, but to know like that confidence as a fan.

Every person in the city felt like that. My son, he said, "We won." He was right.

So that mean you definitely remember them LJ Grandma Ma commercials and all that stuff.

Those are the best, man. Between—

You had the part down the middle.

I had the Lonzo, uh, Rizzy, Riz-Bae. She getting this shot off. Muggs, my dad, Kendall Gill. Yeah, they had a squad.

Shout out KG. Shout out town.

You the only person that get played the way you play. You done seen all kind of defenses, like different strategies. Like a lot of guys haven't got the, like Dame can't, they don't play Dame the way they play you, just off the way that how you play. You know, you always down on the ball. Sometimes you get off the ball. How is that to see like the biggest league ever, the highest level ever? Like, I'm the only person in this league getting guarded like this. And sometimes that can be a different feel. 'Cause you're not KD.

Yeah.

You're not Kobe. You're not 6'9" where I can put you on the side of the free throw line and give you the rock and you just shoot over somebody. You know what I'm saying? At your height, at your length, it's a lot of guys at your size that they can try to throw at you, double team you, or not let you do that. And you know, guys just haven't got to that level yet. Like they don't play the way you play.

I mean, obviously it's respect and knowing what I'm capable of on the floor, but it's weird. I don't know if I'm wired different. Like I have it. There's one time that I kind of gave into it and was like, yo, what is going on? That was during the finals when Toronto ran the box and won. And I'm looking around like, yo, we in the finals, right? Like, right.

I ain't seen this since college or high school. What's going on?

The one time I was looking around like, yo, what's going on? The rest of the time it's like a challenge, like in terms of how can I adapt, evolve, figure out something different? 'Cause like you said, you know, 6'3", 6'3" wingspan. It's like creating space for me is different than other guys in terms of being able to get your shot off and find different ways to score at the rim, mid-range, 3, all that type of stuff. So, you know, I love the style of being able to play on and off the ball and like just the, the chaos that you can create, even if I don't have it, like those possessions are mad fun to me. Just, you get off of it, you run down the lane, come off a screen, two people come with you, somebody get a layup. Like that brings joy to like the way that I approach the game. So it's always gonna be an evolution the rest of my career, just trying to figure out ways to stay impactful.

That's a cheat code right there. That's where he's a cheat code because I'm serious. Just what you just said. Like you gonna take the ball from him, right? Like, okay, well I'm gonna go turn into Reggie Miller and Ray Allen and run all around a million times and screens. But then I could get the ball.

And screen and roll.

And be AI with a ratchet.

You know what? I know if I was going here, what I hate? The fucking flare screen. He come off that mug and he just looking like this and he just running.

I'm like, man, what? He just came off the screen and he acting like he ain't one step.

So flash screens, like those flash screens be killing folks.

That's when I broke the record. That was one thing I wanted to make sure I acknowledged is, you know, the people that sacrificed their body, like to set the screens for me. 'Cause I can be as fast as I want to be running off screens. Like between Draymond and Bogut, D. Lee, Festus Azili, Mo Speights. I'm probably gonna leave somebody out, but I had so many guys in that window Zaza, JaVale, like, set amazing screens for me that it made it work. So it all works together.

I feel like I know the answer to this 'cause I watched and I've seen it. But like, the biggest year that I could liken to when I can even try and compare, like, I did when I was in Phoenix, right? When we first started just letting it go, it was the first year. I would get 17 3-point attempts, sometimes 18. I legit would come down and be like, I look at it like, you know how, you know, your boys on the other team, we'd be standing in front. I'd be like, next time I touch that thing, it's going up. I don't care where it's at. Right? So look, you know, be laughing and joking. Like, I promise you, I didn't, man, that thing done skipped to me before I done picked it up the ground.

Yeah, out the ground.

Easy, man.

And so look, what I see from you, like, I see sometimes when you get in the rhythm, and I promise you, I used to do this sometime when I was in Phoenix. 'Cause I done had a lot of games 7'6". So if I feel like I'm hot, I play with it. Like, okay, this next one, I'm about to shoot this thing so high to the rafters. Like, I'm asking, 'cause I feel like I've seen you do that. I'm asking to make sure, because I know sometimes he comes down and bop, bop, bop, then he just, I'm like, hold up.

There's a little bit of that game within the game.

I'm telling you, 'cause you feeling yourself so much. Like, I wonder if I could do this.

When you have that irrational confidence that you don't care what the results, you like, I'm just trying to say. I had a lot of that in me, I'm telling you.

When you got that coach, ain't gonna say nothing. Shout out Coach D, boy. Ain't gonna say nothing. Ain't no bad shot.

That's a different level you get to. I like that.

I'm telling you. I like that. Tell me, was it the irrational confidence or was it the way teams were guarding you that led you to shooting 40-footers? 'Cause we in town— A little bit of both. Call you like, you— I know you the initiator of it, but Dame and Trae Young, y'all, we call y'all Range Rovers. Y'all know what I'm saying? Like y'all boys shoot anywhere. Come here, y'all got in the gym range. Like how did it get from, okay, cool. You shooting them in practice. You shooting them when you working out. You shoot like, how did it legit come to the point to, all right, I'm about to come across half court and crack you?

I didn't have that range in the first, maybe 1 or 2 years, but it was mostly the rational confidence and Work work that ethic. you put in. And then it became a reaction to how defensive guarding you, like, where is the most amount of space?

Right.

And you have to balance those two. 'Cause yeah, everybody got space 28 feet, but is that a good shot? Probably not. So you have to, you know, it came with time and it was just a natural progression of my game throughout the years. And then once you hit a couple though, And you like, it's not, they ain't luck. It's like once you establish this is where I'm at, this is where I'm at, like that's a good feeling to have knowing that you can surprise defenses no matter what. 'Cause it's hard to defend that shot.

One of my favorite ones is when, I think it was against the Clippers. I think it was against the Clippers. You didn't zip, zam, boom, did a turnaround and just—

Oh yeah.

And Stephen Curry was like, I was like, no, and then it hit it. He like, he walking back on like.

So that was Coach's first year. That was 14-15 season, his first year. And he's trying to come in and implement the system.

So how did that— Ball movement.

Go? Maybe hit the open guy. Something good's gonna happen. And I must have not heard that. Didn't hear that lesson. So his, like, he's coming in with a certain perspective. And that was his, I didn't get to see his reaction in real time. I saw it afterwards. Beautiful knowing there's been plenty of times where he's done that and I missed and he's like, then I look over there, my bad, my bad. But more times it works out.

Of course you saying your dad, but who's some of them guys that it was like, man, I wanna be like him. I wanna be like that person.

Steve Nash and Reggie Miller were the two guys that I watched. And as I got older, I felt like, oh, kind of combine the two and morph into one. I mean, everybody love MJ. Everybody love AI. Y'all can't beat them though.

Y'all can't.

Y'all had to fight for it. As a fan, as a fan, as somebody who just love, you know, like creativity, competition, and just basketball at the highest level. Like those two guys.

Who was that one person that— people might not really know, or they might not be the biggest fan of, you was like, man, it was something about him. I just loved him.

Man, that's a good question. You know what's funny? I'm forgetting, what was Martin that played for Sacramento?

Kevin Moore.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

K-More.

K-More.

K-More had the wind-up jumper. So he was a dude that had to like, nobody would teach his form, right? But for some reason, every time you got, you guard him and you knew like, I'm like, yo, I might get a block tonight. 'Cause he gonna do like this and I'm gonna be able to swipe down on it. He was like, we have like the Warrior, we call him the Warrior All-Star team. It's the 5 guys that when you play against them, they have career nights every night. Like Brandon Jennings was on that. Kevin Martin was on that list. Like every night that dude was— and I'm like, I just love the way that you, how uncanny it is that you can get your shot off and do it with such unorthodox form, but we know it's coming and you still do it. Like he was a dude that I just appreciate. And he was a Southern Conference guy. He went to Western Carolina. So I got to, I ain't play against him, but we had that special bond.

Tell me this, like, how do it feel? I know you're a humble dude, right? But how do it feel to get to the point to where people feel like you changed the game of basketball, like globally, like you changed the way little kid, like Mike had guys going out there trying to be like Mike and do crazy dunks and layups. Like now I don't care where you go, you turn on Baller's Life, any of the Hoop mixtape, all of this stuff, you go, you see kids trying to be Stephen Curry trying to come down, pull from wherever, whether they had any business doing it or not. You got the whole world trying to do that.

I'm gonna use this moment to get on my soapbox and stop tagging me in all these horrible basketball clips of people taking bad shots, talking about I ruined the game. I did not tell y'all to shoot that shot. I did not say shoot that shot.

Public service announcement.

There was one the other day, Isaiah Quigley took a shot in transition. I probably would've shot that shot, but I did not tell him to shoot that shot. And they just tagged me left and right, left and right. Like, yo, you've ruined the game. Thanks. Like, thanks though. I'm like, yo.

You the guru.

They sending them all to you.

Nah, I just play, but it's funny though. 'Cause I appreciate the, well, I shouldn't say, The ability to change the way people approach the game is unreal because the 3-point shot and just shooting the basketball is, it's a skill that everybody can work on. Like you can get better at that. Like I truly believe that how much better, who knows, but not everybody can just go do calf raises and feel like you can get a 40-inch vert. Nobody can grow 6 inches like that. You can shoot the ball and no matter what level you play, what league it is.

How big you are.

It don't matter. Like every, like everybody, it's a common thread amongst basketball players. You have to be able to shoot the ball. So to have affected that skillset in the game, which is probably the most important in the game, like that's, that's dope. And it's also the responsibility of being able to teach the next generation and make sure that that messaging is there for them, that that is possible. Like I've stretched the imagination and the creativity of what, you can do on the basketball floor, but don't skip. You see me over here? Don't skip this part. This part's the work.

I mean, that's what, to me, that's what separate. Like when you, when you get in the class, like it's not a lot of people that get that said about them. Like you didn't say it, but like to have people saying, oh, you like, you think about it. That's like, who? Wilt, Kareem, MJ, Dr. J, you know what I'm saying? Even like Dirk. Like, yeah, Dirk. Like, it's not a lot of Dirk's dudes who could say like, mm, you won MVPs, won championships. But to say that like, hey, this dude changed the game globally. Like when Iverson came, he had the whole entire world talking about something. I don't care if you could do it or not. Everybody was all over here with like, it's only those like, you know what I'm saying? Once in a lifetime, dude. Watch my mics. Like I said. Damn shoes. That's like some once in a lifetime type stuff. Like when you get that type of credit for something and then you literally see it, you look around and it's everybody doing that.

It's, I mean, hopefully it's inspirational. I hate to use that term, but it's something that will live forever, I think, in terms of how kids approach the game and what they can imagine themselves doing.

It's good for the game. 'Cause like, man, back in the day they was shooting 4 threes. A whole team was shooting 4 threes a game and just showed that's what the reason the court is that big. You can use all of it.

Use it all. Since he won't make a big deal of me scuffing up his little Js, I was going that way anyway. That's the segue. We gonna do that. We gonna go ahead. Like, you didn't went, like, every kid, every player wanna have their own shoe. You done went from own shoe to a whole damn brand. Brand. Like, what do that feel like? Like you right now got a Curry brand Scully on. We got on Jordan.

I got the ball head. I gotta make sure it's warm, especially where we at.

I got the winter no cut look. So it's an amazing opportunity to continue to bring people along in this journey with me. So I got my first signature shoe in 2015. And to now have your own brand that you get to, you know, inspire kids, inspire people to change their communities in the way that they can. And that's such a universal sentiment that anybody can adopt, 'cause you can fill in the gap of what that means and who you get to affect and impact. And that's what the brand is all about. And then, you know, from an athlete perspective, like, The signature shoe business, we all know, is hard. Like it's every year you gotta continue to elevate and continue to evolve and how it's, you know, set standards high. So that process has been unbelievably like fun and rewarding. And to know that I'm like on my 9th signature shoe, we got a running shoe, a lifestyle shoe, we in the golf now.

Right.

And everything that we do and we sell is, tying to giving back to the community to help youth sports continue to service, you know, the next generation and provide opportunities for kids to play and have safe places to go play too. So everything about it is authentic to me. And I think we're just, I know we're just getting started. Like that's the dope part. Like, you know, it could be something that's around for a long time.

How does it feel to be a power couple? Like be a part of a power couple? Like a lot of—

That's a great, I mean, go ahead. Follow up to the question, but it's an interesting position because not many people know our backstory. Like we met in high school at youth group, honestly. And you know, started dating my sister. After my freshman year in college. And everything was just a natural progression of just sharing life and living and figuring it out on the fly together. And you ride that wave together and your bond is so tight and all the experiences you do together that it's really hard to understand as the rocket ship kind of goes through and basketball success and her career success all kind of aligns. And how you're received and what the conversations are and like whatever power couple means in that respect. What we do is, and what we pride ourselves on is trying to be as real as possible and understand like, you know, people are inspired by, you know, couples that have quote unquote figured it out or stand for something and have, you know, something to share.

Yeah.

But we don't put ourselves on that platform of like, you know, Play ho. Of what that means. It's just living life and sharing, you know, bits and pieces of who we are. So I appreciate that so much because if you think about like everything we talk about, everything that's happened, like she's been by my side from day one.

Definitely.

And I wouldn't trade that for the world. And now that we have our kids, like we have a shared perspective on how we're trying to raise our kids amidst all this chaos and the platform and the bright light. So, you know, that's helpful. And obviously, you know, you don't know what the future's gonna hold and we're all trying to figure it out and adjust as you go through the different seasons in life. And we're gonna keep sharing that as much as we can.

Well, we love the Currys as a whole, you know, the whole family. So man, y'all keep on doing y'all thing.

Absolutely.

We definitely appreciate y'all, how y'all represent us. It's good to see you and your family doing y'all thing.

I appreciate that, man.

Where do you accredit like your mom, your dad, or your upbringing, like the philanthropy and the selflessness of you and the giving back and every time you turn around, you doing something dope in the community, giving back, giving shoes, creating shoes for the little girls when, you know, all of those different things, not taking the proceeds, giving the proceeds to this and that. Like we know that's rare. You know what I'm saying? I don't know that the world really understand it, but where do you think you got you know, that put in your heart to be that type of person? And like, literally every time you turn around, I'm like, damn, man. Like this dude, like, boy, every time he turn around, he doing something dope for the community and stuff. What do you think you got?

That started the philanthropic efforts and just the focus on it and making it a priority started with my parents. My pops had computer learning centers in Charlotte, the greater Charlotte area. And every, maybe 2, 3 times a year, he was opening up a new one. Me and my siblings would go volunteer and do all that. So I got to see like how basketball could lead to an impact in the community that for a fan base and people that supported them on the court, he was able to support them right back. And so that's initiated everything that I've tried to do and doors that are open to me from the, you know, my successes on the court and, you know, the platform to always, you know, find a way to think selflessly and try to give back. And then you can bring people along that journey with you. And so that for me is special, but it's also like my faith is huge to me in terms of like, I knew I was given a God-given skill and ability to play this game and a love and an approach to it. To it. But there's always, always, always gratitude for everything that I get. Like, it's not me, like I put the work in, but it's not me. And so if I can have an opportunity to leverage that in a positive way, I'm doing right by the blessings that I've been given. And so I have to make sure I say that out loud and make sure that that's a consistent, you know, thing, because you can get lost in the sauce and the stuff pretty quick.

Truly. Now that's why I'm sitting here bringing this up. And I want, I'm, I'm saluting you from that standpoint. 'Cause like you say, we all been in league and we know how, like you say, you get busy and caught up in all of this stuff. Family problems, all that stuff. You know, somebody, especially in your position, has got so many things going on. And for you to make that a focal point of yours to like, you know what I'm saying? 'Cause a lot of people, we get a lot of money and we enjoy it and we do things. So it's super dope for us to see how much you do for everybody else with that. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. That's big.

Absolutely. And then you think about like the community that has supported me and my family. I moved to the Bay when I was 21 years old. I've been there for 13 years. I raised my family there. The fan base has supported us through thick and thin. And, you know, me and my wife were able to start a foundation called Eat, Learn, Play that services, 99% of our work is done in Oakland around the next generation and setting up resources and the village around the talent that is all throughout that city. But the opportunity is not. And so it's another way to give back, to represent like, yo, basketball has been awesome. We've all had amazing experiences. We celebrated championships, we've done all this stuff. And this little orange ball has been the spark to that. But now, you know, it's gonna lead to, you know, changing lives dramatically. And then that can be able to pass the torch to somebody else. So I'm just doing my part.

Tell us about some of these famous, these family like shootouts y'all had. Like, what are some of the days? Like, was y'all daddy kicking y'all ass for a long time? He always was. Y'all finally like, when you finally got that win where it's like, oh, he can't really fuck with us. Don't fuck with me like that.

I got that. I beat him in horse when I was 13, but he always like, dude, you're only as good as your last game, as he would say. And so he was just waiting for that next opportunity. And he actually, he won the last one. It was all 3 of us in the backyard at the house in Charlotte. So he's like, he is the reigning Curry champ, I guess, right now. I hate to admit that, But like you said, shooters can always shoot too. That's the thing I like and admire, but I hate at the same time. He's doing color commentating for the Hornets. He probably shoots 10 shots a year, but when them 10 shots go up—

They show it. They show it. I've seen it. I've seen it looking smooth.

It's crazy.

Hey, listen, you could just sit here and like, spectate this part of the conversation. Cause you ain't got nothing to do. You know, you did a whole lot of dunks, whole lot of block shots, whole lot of this, but he ain't never won no 3-point competition. You know what I'm saying? Me and you can sit here and say that. That's something I can say I did. You know what I'm saying? There we go. We gonna go on Stephen Curry, Stephen Curry like this while we have this conversation. You feel me? Like talk about, this the part that I always like to talk about. Cause people don't understand. Like when, you know, they like, y'all just shooting. Ain't nothing to be like, when you get up there and you sit on that little block, what that feel like? Like right when you know you on deck, when it's like the whole world about to watch you, you ain't, it's you in the ring.

That's a different feeling.

And you can't cross nobody.

Like off the rack. It's a wild adrenaline rush. 'Cause like you said, like, you know, you got 60 seconds to get it in. And especially if you miss them first 2 or 3, you feel like the world is yours.

I airballed the first one before, like, oh.

It's a different thing. Like, you know how different it is than just shooting the basketball in the game, like you say, and it's just you on the stage. But once you get hot though, that's one of the best feelings in the world. I kid you not, like the two times I've won it. Two times. I went up, yeah, it was a little hard, right?

A little Ric Flair action. Two times, two times.

Two times.

You get hot and you feel it, you hear the crowd and you know it, like it's just you. And you just say, how long can I keep this going? Just get to the last rack, get to the last ball. So that is one of the best feelings in the world. Especially when you know, like, I don't know, for me, the last time I was the last person to go. So I knew the number I had to hit and like just that competition. Like, I love it. I love it. I love it so much. I'm probably never gonna do it again.

See, now when I was in my competition, you right. Remember I tell you Shaq was right there when I come, you came out the last 2 times.

I got money on you or something.

So I missed the first one and then I hit the 9, the last 9 straight. So when I hit, I thought I hit about 2 on the rack, he began, "Yakubin." You could just hear him, but I don't know why I was like, I could hear him out of everything. You already know he loud, but he was like right there. Man, every time it was hit, it was like, "Yakubin, you said?" You hear the crowd going, "Oh, oh." So then I'm knowing like, "Okay." I didn't know the score. I thought I had tied it when I hit. I thought I had tied when I got to the seat.

I said, "Oh shit." It was the last one.

Yeah, I said, "That was 2." I said, "Okay." I didn't credit that the money ball was 2. I was like, "Okay, I got that." That put me ahead of Corbin for that year and I won it.

How does it feel to be top 75? We watched the ceremony for the 50th greatest and now it's the 75 greatest. I watched that too. To be part of that next generation of 75 greatest players. Like, it's another milestone.

Sometimes you just stare at the list and that says enough for me. Like I just stare at the list.

Big O.

Big O, Kareem.

Mike, Magic. Like everybody.

I can't really put it into words just 'cause like I watched that same ceremony. I saw the dope jackets.

Exactly. Yeah.

It's like the 10 people I really didn't know. I'm like, oh, that's— Yeah.

Straight up.

But it's amazing just to know like, yeah, from that time and just everything that's happened in between there. And to think about the crop of guys that are still playing.

That got picked.

And the guys that just retired, like it's a special group to be a part of. Like, that's not even, I don't think that does it justice. It's just, it's something you never imagined until it happens. And something that every time you think about it or it's brought up, it'll always bring the same smile to my face. 'Cause, like, league's only been around 75 years. You think about it, just like you said, like how many players are coming in? How many great players?

It's gonna be a 75th anniversary and they gonna pick 25 players. Like, what was your thoughts of that? Like, oh, do I got a chance of this? Did like they—

That was the first thought. Then you started—— well, I shouldn't say, then you got your people in your camp and all that who already started doing the list for you.

Yeah. Like, please. Like, okay, you be humble.

You be humble. You want to use that.

You in there. You over there being humble. Like, come on, somewhere.

The vote ain't for another month, man. Y'all done had me over here a nervous wreck the whole time. But once you start thinking about it, it's like, I think I've done enough to get on there. And like until you actually hear your name on there, the full appreciation doesn't come. 'Cause you can think about like the, like Klay and the guys that are like, whatever, '77 through '90. That were like— Like, yeah, I agree. But, and it's also like, there's so many amazing basketball players that you suit up with and against and all that type of stuff. So it's special.

Are you excited? You gotta be excited. For what, like we don't even know what it's gonna be, but you know, All-Star's gonna be some grand celebration. I don't know if y'all gonna get some jackets or whatever y'all gonna get.

Jackets might be in store. I think somebody did ask for the measurements.

Okay. See, see, see, see, there it is. They gotta get some dope. 'Cause them jackets, Mike, them hats.

But just to go through— Like you say, you gonna be going and getting enshrined and it's gonna be that moment. I don't know if they gonna have everybody there or how they gonna do it. But like, that's like, to know that you amongst them type of people is unreal, dude.

I know how many people will be there in person. You like, see it on paper is one thing, but seeing like them all on the same court, that's gonna be a whole 'nother vibe. So we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

Who's your, not your top 5, but your favorite 5 players, your favorite 5?

My favorite 5.

This ain't about who you thought was the best.

I know, my favorite 5. Hmm. From me watching the game, it was MJ, AI, Steve Nash, Reggie Miller, and Muggsy was my like, I'm sorry, Pop. Pops the honorable mention on that list. But I still can't get over the visual just watching Muggs play. Like it still to me is just one of the most amazing accomplishments of all time.

I thought you were gonna say Vince Sanity.

Yeah, he'd be right there too. They all played together in Toronto. But that'd be my 5. That'd be my 5.

I'm gonna ask you start, bench, cut.

All right.

You gotta start one. You gotta bench one, you gotta trade one.

All right.

This is what he trying to get you now.

I know, let's go.

Gary Payton, Jason Kidd.

All day. My God.

Isaiah Thomas.

Oh my God.

You gotta start one. We got trade one. I ain't gonna let you cut no. Start, bench, trade. Gary Payton, Jason Kidd.

And you getting me in trouble 'cause I'm playing with his son.

Yeah.

Crazy.

I wanted to ask you about him too.

And J-Kid. J-Kid is my, he's, this ain't even got nothing to do with the question. He's just my favorite of the point guards that I got to watch. Besides Steve Nash, that's my guy. J-Kid, we starting J-Kid. Oh my, how you pick between Zeke and GP? You gotta, you trade GP and you, You bench Zeke? That's crazy.

That's what you wanna do? You the one got CGP now.

Trade in for GP too.

This is what I like to ask. I know you humble though. So I don't know what I'm gonna get. When you first got the, when you had first got some cash, like, you know what I'm saying? I ain't talking about like, all right, I'm about to go, you know, buy a house. I don't hear about none of that. Like, I like the ice on right now. What did you do when you felt comfortable? Like, I got a little something, I could do something nice for myself.

For me?

What did the chef do? What did Chef Curry do when he got a little change in his pocket? A little pocketbook money.

The car is one thing. When you feel confident enough to put your initials and logo and stuff all up in the seats and the rims and the back and the leather and the stitching and the—

Suede and all that.

Oh, when you do that, that for me was like, Like big time. Big time. And then not knowing what I was doing, I sold a car like a year later.

That's everybody though. You getting up on all type of crap and then they feel like you ain't gonna get no money for it no more.

It fools us every time.

You just ruined it.

Fools us every time. Every time.

It was a rite of passage in the league. I remember that like it was yesterday.

How was it like, you know, y'all go to the championship 4 out of 5 years or something like that? 5 in a row. 5 in a row.

Yeah, lost two of them.

But, you know, teams are waiting on y'all to, yeah, that's over with, get on out the way. Yeah, they losing now. Like, you know what I'm saying? Teams are waiting for y'all to lose and not be on that mountaintop no more. How was the rebuild? Seeing these young guys come in, ain't about bringing a veteran in, 'cause we still there. It's like about a rebuild.

Not really a rebuild, You can call it that. 'Cause it was the injury part that took away the core that then forced you into a different kind of situation really quick. For as many, you know, good breaks as we had, we had a lot of bad breaks at the end of the run. And, you know, obviously KD's injury and then him leaving, Klay's injury, having, you know, missed now 2 years. I got, I broke my hand, missed 5 months. Once, you know, that season, you understand the big picture of, you know, it might look different. We still have our same core. If we can just get healthy, we gonna have a shot, but you don't know how to fill in the gaps and like, you know, what it's gonna take. Cause especially nowadays, like player movement and all that stuff is so, is so wild.

Yeah.

You know, retooling is, is pretty hard, but then you get to this season and, Like, honestly, I didn't think we'd start off as hot as we have, you know, because we had like, we knew we had what we needed, but chemistry takes a while to build, but we've tried to expedite that. And now we're in a pretty, really good position to implement Klay back, hopefully get, you know, James Wiseman in there. We got some really talented young guys. Man, so much. Mix with the veteran core.

I think it helped y'all get the pieces that y'all kind of needed to get the last couple years with guys getting older and guys retiring. Y'all missing, I feel like, man, y'all got a lot to choose from. Y'all got Gary Payton Jr. over there, man. Y'all got Lee over there, man. Y'all got a lot of young talent.

First of all, just like you said earlier, who was messing up? Who the hell was messing up? How Gary Payton Jr. wasn't the second? I'm sorry. How he like, come on, bro. Like just from a strictly from a defensive standpoint, how he wasn't playing, how he wasn't on the team, how he like—

I can ask all those questions. He tell you he's gotten better, but I'm asking those same questions. 'Cause he affects the game. That's all you want, people that affect the game.

All right, man. That's been a wrap, man. We appreciate Stephen Curry, the best shooter on the planet. Man ever walking to pull up on us, you know what I'm saying? This was real. We appreciate you, Fred.

Appreciate y'all having me. Absolutely.