Stephen Curry and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf talk family, the Warriors' 2015 championship parade, and the city's changes. Curry commits to staying in Oakland despite the team moving to San Francisco, and pledges to auction his signed shoes for the Oakland Promise.
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Did you already put the order in? Good to see you. Look at what kind of food we got. All burgers.
It's pretty fried.
Pretty fried?
A lot of fried stuff, yeah.
That's all right.
Yeah, well, you're gonna work it off. I don't know if I will.
How you doing?
Good, how are you?
I'm doing good. Good, my man, what's up?
You're looking good.
Ooh, everything? We might as well get in the van and head on to the game and head over to Oracle and see what's going on over there. Obviously, you're a public servant, but you also have a beautiful family.
I have two very funny, talented, amazing children, Dominic and Lena.
What are they into?
Dominic plays basketball.
Okay, okay.
Like every kid in Oakland, thanks to you.
I tried, I tried.
Alina is a rock climber, and she plays electric guitar. She's 10. That's awesome. Now, how old are your two girls now?
So I have a 5- and 2-year-old. Riley, her favorite thing in the world to do is horseback riding.
Oh, wow.
So she's fearless.
At 5?
She's fearless. And Ryan is the funniest person I've ever met in my entire life. So I have a very good feeling she's going to be a stand-up comic or something when she grows up.
Do you know that the next one on the way is a boy or girl?
We don't, so—
You're going to be surprised?
Taking a different approach. But 3, we're outnumbered now.
You are.
We don't play much zone defense in the NBA, but I'll be playing zone defense at home for sure.
It's the thing that keeps you going.
100%. 100%. I love it. And they give you a reason. They give you a reason to wake up when you have a bad day, really.
Or when you have a bad day, it's what kind of recharges your batteries. I've definitely had some where— I mean, it's kind of a personal story, but— During the Ghost Ship fire, that was just really, really hard. And I could not be the mayor of Oakland if I did not have this incredible family to go home to.
It's an emotional thing, I'm assuming, to go through something like that, but to go through it with strength and courage and be able to lead and inspire, it's pretty important.
It's an honor. It's an honor to represent your hometown. But sometimes that means kind of holding the pain of your community. But also some days it means holding the joy of your community. And certainly the Warriors have given our city some amazing moments of joy. I'll tell you, I will never forget that first victory parade.
Oh my goodness.
I just felt like this is how I've always seen my city. And finally the whole world gets to see how beautiful my city is.
I didn't really know what to expect when we got on those floats and turned the corner. And you look around, you see people from all different walks of life. You see people wearing Warrior gear from like the '70s and the We Believe team and this generation and just all uniting under one special moment that we all remember. And hopefully in this year and those next 4 years, you'll be planning a bunch of different parades. And I know I love having parades. The elephant in the room is obviously the team moving to San Francisco, but in my heart—
The arena is moving to San Francisco.
Correct me, go ahead, talk to me.
The team is staying in Oakland.
There you go. You heard it here first. I got something.
You gotta promise me you are not leaving this community, right?
No, I am not. And on that note, there's a story and hopefully a narrative that I wanna help bring to life how I see being a Warrior and what that means to me when it comes to, you know, the fans that I interact with. And I'm not from here, obviously.
I'm from Charlotte. Yeah, I wanna hear, like, how you see Oakland. Like, how does Stephen Curry see Oakland?
My favorite part of being a transplant here is just how beautiful this place is and things like that. Just how much community there is here. And really, you think about how much Oakland's grown.
It's grown.
And for the better. Oakland has a lot to offer the world.
Oakland is going through more change right now than I have ever seen. And while the skyline is changing, I've gotta protect the foundation, right? We're a working-class town first and foremost. And then the progressive values, you know, the social movements, the protests, I mean, it's all kind of part of the foundation.
I saw recently, I don't know how you wanna get into it, current events or whatnot, but I welcomed you into the people that have been attacked by Trump campaign. For good reasons, for great reasons, so good job on that one. I'll just leave it at that. So we had a great conversation, but I kind of want to ask you some rapid-fire questions. Alright, I'm ready. So that people can get to know mayor Libby Schaaf a little bit better. All right, here we go. First question is E-40 or Too Short?
Oh, Too Short.
Too Short, legend. Famed in the music world, Prince or Michael Jackson?
Prince, Prince, a thousand times Prince.
Larry Bird or Magic Johnson?
Magic Johnson.
Magic Johnson.
Yeah, my husband graduated from Michigan State. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
Ooh, Rolling Stones.
Me too. Vacations, mountains or beach? Beaches.
Oh, beach all day.
There's only one correct answer to my next question.
Okay.
A's or Giants?
The A's.
Yeah! Favorite taco truck?
I don't have one. You gotta put me on.
Sinaloa.
Sinaloa?
On 22nd Avenue.
You get Sinaloa just got the mayor's stamp of approval? That's big time right there. Let's see what your opinion is on this. The Curry 1, which was the first, my first signature shoe, or the Curry 4, which is what I have on my feet right now.
I'd say Curry 4. There we go. I think you've evolved.
There you go. We're getting better.
Those are beautiful. I do think, though, you should wear a different pair every day and auction them off for charity.
I might have to do that.
When you're done with those—
You take these off my head?
You sign them for me, and I'll auction them off for the Oakland Promise. Deal?
Deal. Y'all heard it here first. Stay tuned for details on that auction.
So I couldn't resist. I did tell my son Dominic that I was gonna get to see you today.
You getting a ride from me?
So I said, hey, do you have a t-shirt or something you want him to sign? Look at that.
2015. That's it right there. That's the parade you're talking about right there. That's the squad. #FoolsSquad. It's already pretty electric around here at Oracle Arena for tonight.
It always is.
That's the Dominic right there.
All right, thank you.
I'm gonna pound it up. Thank you very much. If you want to play 10, 15 minutes tonight, we got backup PG. You can fill in for me for a little bit.
Dude, I'm not even filling in for the cheerleaders, okay?
