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From Antananarivo to Adelaide to Alexandria, they know the greatest shooter ever. They love him in China. They saw him go bonkers in France. They raised him in Charlotte, NC. And yet, only one place can claim to be the true witness to his Hall of Fame career: the Bay Area.
The sun was just setting over New York City when the late David Stern approached the microphone on June 25, 2009. Six players had already been selected in the NBA draft. Stern, the NBA commissioner at the time, had only said, “With the seventh pick…”
Curry rubbed both of his hands together as Stern spoke.
Then Stern said, “The Golden State Warriors…”
Curry’s nose, maybe involuntarily due to the mounting nerves, pointed down to meet his hands. His eyes stayed glued to the stage that Commissioner Stern stood on.
Stern, ever the showman, paused for dramatic effect.
Stern waited. And waited…
Then he finally announced the Warriors’ selection.
It seems that Stephen knew his fate just by hearing the first letter of his name.
As Stern finished announcing the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, Curry’s eyes closed and his head dropped, resting on his hands. It’s an image that looks like a prayer with all these years of hindsight at our advantage.
Stephen’s prayer was answered. And then some.
The Bay Area saw him become a four-time NBA champion, 11-time NBA All-Star, the all-time leader in three-pointers and so much more. They saw him become an all-time great.
With the All-Star Game taking place in the Bay this year, they’ll also see him be the ambassador of San Francisco and Oakland. He’ll be responsible for showing the NBA world what he’s learned over the last 15-plus years.
“It’s cool to be hosting All-Star Weekend,” Curry tells SLAM calmly.
He’s rocking his “What The Bay” Curry 12s, giving us a preview of what will be on his feet during the world-famous weekend. The new colorway is mismatched, inspired by San Francisco and Oakland.
“It’s always cool to have a mismatched shoe that tells the full, holistic story of the Bay. There are a lot of cool Easter eggs in the kicks, and they’re loud, just like the Bay is,” Curry says. “To celebrate [All-Star Weekend] and understand what the Bay means, obviously there’s so much beauty in the Bay—nature, architecture, the culture that’s been built around that, so that’s what we try to bring with these shoes,” he goes on.
The two-time MVP looks down at his feet to talk about the inspiration of the many colors. The left sneaker (for San Francisco) and right sneaker (for Oakland) each move a little as he examines either side, breaking down the differences.
“It kind of ties San Francisco and Oakland together,” Curry continues. “[There are] stark differences even though they’re right next to each other, connected by the Bay Bridge, which we call out. The Golden Gate Bridge as well, the fog on the San Francisco side, the sunsets and the sunrises on the Oakland side.”
The “What the Bay” colorway is available on UA.com beginning February 14.
Curry spent a decade seeing those Oakland sunsets and sunrises. The Warriors played in The Town’s renowned Oracle Arena all the way up until 2019. His first regular-season game at Oracle was on October 28, 2009, and he played in the building’s final game, on June 13, 2019. When Chase Center in San Francisco opened up for its first regular-season matchup on October 24, 2019, Curry was in action, emerging from Karl the Fog. All of this time in the Bay has taught him about what basketball means to the 415 and the 510.
“Basketball and culture are so tied together,” Curry says of the Bay. “The franchise has had a very interesting journey through the years, you know, playing on both sides of the Bridge, the championship that they won back in ’74-75, and then, you know, the 40-year drought until we won it in ’14-15.”
Led by Rick Barry and Jamaal “Silk” Wilkes, that ’74-75 Warriors squad pulled off an amazing four-game sweep of a talented Washington Bullets team. It was enough to capture a whole generation of Dubs fans, who then passed down their love for the team through the years to generations that followed. The growing faithful saw incredible talent like Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Latrell Sprewell, Chris Webber, Antawn Jamison, Jason Richardson, Baron Davis, Monta Ellis and so many others come through. The ravenous crowd was the sixth man for the outrageous “We Believe” playoff run in 2007, when the eighth-seeded Warriors defeated the one-seeded Mavericks, led by Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki. By the time Curry had taken the League by storm in the mid-2010s, Warriors Ground was a solidified fortress. The whole League knew how formidable, even rabid, Warriors fans were. Inside Oracle, the 19,596 fans constantly came together to form a chorus that was both deafening and defining.
“Oracle is home,” Curry said in a 2019 video released by the Dubs. “It’s where I find the most joy playing basketball. I’ve experienced a lot in Oracle. I really grew up as a basketball player there. It will always be my first home in the NBA.”
But the fans who loved Curry back at Oracle still love him at Chase Center. The faithful are still the faithful.
In our conversation, Curry uses the words “loyal” and “passionate” to describe Dubs fans.
“I use the word ‘loyal’ because it wasn’t always the glamorous days of, like, winning championships,” Curry says of Warriors fans and of the people around the team. They stuck with him through the uncertainty of his early ankle injuries and through the hard times of building the championship core. “It was some very humble beginnings,” he says. “We were winning, like, 20-something games my first year.” Twenty-six games, to be exact.
“But it was always about having fun and playing with joy,” Curry continues. “I understand that [anything] you do great in this world, you don’t do it by yourself, and that’s not just my teammates, coaches, the organization. That’s all the people around the game-day experience. The security guards who I used to do the ‘Jones Barbecue and Foot Massage’ dance with. The season ticket holders that you get to meet and rub shoulders with that have been along this journey. Like, I remember when you didn’t have any facial hair and you were out there running around playing. Now 16 years later, you’re still doing it at a high level.
“So that’s why I use the word ‘loyal,’ because the very unique experience I’ve had of being able to play for one franchise for so long. It’s been cool to see the journey unfold and then have some ability to kind of reminisce on where we started from.”
Not surprisingly, he’s very far away from where he started with the people of the Bay. Believe it or not, lucky fans used to be able to catch him at a local In-N-Out after games.
“I used to be out and about in the city a little bit more than I am now, so you’d have a lot more interactions, whether it was at freaking In-N-Out after a game,” he says with a big smile. “They closed it now which is tough, but there was one right across the highway from Oracle. We used to go there after games all the time and it’d be cool to just be amongst the fans and people. You feel that energy. They talk trash, they support the team, the loyalists, and you feel it no matter where you go.”
Though he’s not outside like he used to be, it’s impossible for him to not feel the love of the Bay. As he’s said multiple times, he’s got 16 seasons of miracles to his name. As the longest tenured and most popular Warrior, he’s been the ultimate bridge between Oakland and San Francisco, between Oracle Arena and Chase Center. In moments of basketball doubt within the Bay, Curry has been the undying hope for those passionate and loyal fans. And in moments of basketball success, Curry has been the galvanizing force that pushes the fanbase into a frenzy.
All-Star 2025 is about him as much as it’s about the NBA. His face, his jersey and his sneakers will be everywhere. There are gonna be countless fans of all ages wearing his Curry Brand sneakers and there will also be other players rocking Curry Brand silhouettes. De’Aaron Fox, the first-ever signature athlete at Curry, has already made one All-Star team and there’s a chance he represents Northern California yet again this year. Quincy Olivari, a rising success story for the South Bay Lakers, also has a chance to make the G League Up Next Game. If he does, he’ll be in the Curry 12. The rest of the Curry Brand fam features MiLaysia Fulwiley, Seth Curry and Brandon Jennings, and they’re all likely to pop out in some crazy pair of Currys at some point during All-Star Weekend.
And the Curry Brand’s expansion is still ongoing. Its footprints are spreading out from the Bay all the way to Toronto, where Davion Mitchell was just announced as the newest signing. There’s even representation out in Japan. The former Nebraska Cornhusker sensation and current Indiana Mad Ants guard Keisei Tominaga, a native of Moriyama Nagoya Aichi, hoops in Currys.
“It’s still surreal, to be honest,” Curry says of his sneaker odyssey.
SLAM is now officially part of that unfolding Curry Brand history. The last part of our interview before All-Star Weekend with the future Hall of Famer is dedicated to the very special Curry 12 and Curry Spawn FloTro colorways we recently unveiled. They celebrate SLAM’s 30th anniversary and our past with No. 30. Close looks reveal previous covers on the sneakers, like Issue 173, Curry’s very first time as a cover star.
“Well, I remember the very first shoot, and I actually went in my phone and looked at all the pictures from the day,” Curry says. “And we were there with the Spawn, which was the first Under Armour shoe that I wore back in 2013, and I think the headline was ‘The Can’t Miss Kid.’ And to be able to have that recall and pay homage to not only the magazine and what it means for basketball and culture, but to celebrate my first SLAM cover and have the Curry 12—I didn’t even have a signature shoe then. It was just the Spawn, and now we’re at Curry 12. But to bring the Spawn FloTro back that I actually got to wear in the game as well, [it’s] pretty cool. Actually, that’s part of why we designed this [midsole window], because you got to have so many statement pieces on the side profile here. To see all the different moments from the covers that I’ve had, and another one’s coming…” Curry’s voice trails off and leads to a slight smile.
Another Stephen Curry SLAM cover is here. It celebrates everything—the past 16 years in the Bay, the present of 2025 All-Star Weekend and even the future. We don’t know all of what the future holds for Stephen Curry, but we do know that the world will see it. From Antananarivo to Adelaide to Alexandria to China to Charlotte, all eyes are on the Bay.
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