{"id":43834,"date":"2022-09-23T15:42:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T15:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=43834"},"modified":"2022-09-23T15:42:14","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T15:42:14","slug":"stephen-curry-a-man-amongst-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/stephen-curry-a-man-amongst-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Curry A Man Amongst Men"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Curry Is Putting It All on the Line<\/h1>\n
The NBA superstar has changed the game of basketball for the better. Now, can he help change America?<\/div>\n
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Photographs by Andre D. Wagner<\/div>\n
Sep 12, 2022 9:00 am<\/div>\n
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Stephen Curry<\/a> has come a long way since the curious case of the government plot from outer space.\u00a0Five years ago \u2014 after he\u2019d won his second NBA<\/a> championship with the Golden State Warriors, and right after Donald Trump<\/a> had challenged him to a Twitter war \u2014 Curry was golfing with his buddy Barack Obama when the ex-president started joking about secrets of the White House, the kind you\u2019re not supposed to take home to Mar-a-Lago. Obama casually lined up a putt, spun around, and deadpanned: \u201cYou won\u2019t believe<\/em> what the aliens look like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following year, with another title behind him, Curry half-joked on a podcast that the moon landing might, in fact, be fake news. He\u2019d been shown a conspiracy-theory video during his senior year in Christian high school, Curry says today, \u201cto arm us for defending our faith as we went into the world.\u201d But the podcast gaffe went viral. \u201cAnd that night,\u201d he remembers, \u201cI got an email. It was a pretty stern, direct one from President Obama.\u201d Man did<\/em> land on the surface of the moon, Obama informed him, and what you say matters, up here in the presidential stratosphere of power. The scolding continued, Curry says: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do<\/em> something about this.\u201d So, Curry proceeded to host a 15-minute discussion with an astronaut for his 23 million followers on IG Live. And he instructed Under Armour, the performance-wear company he helped level up into a powerhouse, to create a custom pair of sneakers featuring craters and the American flag that he could wear in a game and auction off to support STEM programs in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n

This past June, Curry was on top of his home planet again. Minutes after his Warriors won their fourth championship, the two-time regular-season MVP clutched his first NBA Finals MVP trophy, then shouted at his haters for the camera: \u201cWhat are they gonna say now? What are they gonna say now?!\u201d His shirt was sopping wet with champagne, and he wanted to get back to his family. But Curry\u2019s manager handed him the phone for one congratulatory call. Obama encouraged the champ to thump his chest. The 44th president \u201cwas dropping some bars,\u201d Curry recalls \u2014 and he suggested that Curry add a bit of sauce to the new mantra: \u201cWhat the fuck<\/em> are they gonna say now?!\u201d<\/p>\n

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PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDRE D. WAGNER. Jacket by Levi\u2019s x Denim Tears.<\/cite><\/div>\n

He has shut up the haters all right. Curry emerged from an injury-riddled pandemic hiatus to secure his place in the record books as the best shooter of all time. Beyond the court, his legacy project, known to trusted advisers and family members as the Curryverse, knows no bounds. This offseason, Curry finally received a diploma from Davidson College in North Carolina, where the so-called Baby-Faced Assassin led the nation in three-pointers before leaving in 2009, after his junior year, for the NBA. He trademarked his \u201cNight Night\u201d celebration \u2014 head cocked atop a prayer-hands pillow, after putting away his opponents with a clutch bucket \u2014 that became a contender for the top meme of 2022. He\u2019s nearly locked a lifetime contract with Under Armour worth potentially more than $1 billion. And through his foundation, Eat.Learn.Play., Curry has helped to feed thousands of children in need and distributed more than 500,000 books, scaling the organization into a legit change agent on the issues of hunger and literacy. While he was at it, Curry crowned the champion of his Underrated tour for young golfers of color, which may be doing more to diversify his second-favorite sport than Tiger Woods ever did.<\/p>\n

At 34, Curry is \u201cabsolutely\u201d committed to winning the title again this year. But the game isn\u2019t his only focus. Curry has raised his profile as a businessman, a humanitarian, and \u2014 slowly but surely \u2014 an activist and more vocal political leader. Look into his kaleidoscopic stare as he considers his status in the history books, and you begin to believe Curry when he declares that he can eventually \u201chave as much influence\u201d as Michael Jordan. And while the notoriously apolitical Jordan once said that \u201cRepublicans buy sneakers, too,\u201d Curry has already put his brand on the line by clashing with Trump, endorsing Joe Biden, and marching for racial justice. Now, Curry is grappling with how he might expand the meaning of influence, and wondering what the fuck he<\/em> is gonna say next.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re growing and evolving on the same page as these national, politicized conversations, but it doesn\u2019t have to be sides,\u201d he tells me, pinching at his scraggly under-chin stubble. \u201cWhat I try to do is be real, but also activate conversation that is sometimes uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Curry, in L.A. in August, works with young people across the country through his Eat.Learn.Play. foundation, Underrated basketball and golf tours, and other charities<\/em>. Photograph by Andre D. Wagner. T-Shirt by Hanro. Pant by LEVI\u2019S\u00ae X DENIM TEARS. Shoes by Louboutin. Necklaces by VEERT.<\/cite><\/div>\n

ARRIVING AT THE Boys & Girls Club of Long Beach, California, on a Tuesday morning in early August, Curry tiptoes past the gym and takes a peek at the freshly painted mural of himself and MLK wrapping the court. Four-dozen neighborhood students, wearing Curry\u2019s sneakers, wait patiently inside for a surprise guest. But this is the LBC, where Snoop Dogg reigns. It\u2019s Snoop\u2019s old gym. And in a classroom turned green room next to the court, Snoop is waiting, too, eager for gossip on Curry\u2019s former teammate Kevin Durant, who had demanded over the weekend that the Brooklyn Nets either trade him or fire their coach and general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s KD! Every team wants him,\u201d Curry says \u2014 including, he would reveal to me at lunch that afternoon, the Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They agree that Durant is better off staying put, and Curry goes back to laughing at the hunking gold \u201cDeath Row Records\u201d chain that Snoop had presented to him as a gift. \u201cI\u2019m gonna hang this around the NBA trophy,\u201d Curry jokes. As he prepares to give the unsuspecting kids an hour of free, NBA-level coaching, I suggest to Curry that Death Row might not fly on a day very much sponsored by Under Armour. \u201cIt\u2019s a little off-brand, but sometimes you gotta stretch your imagination a little bit,\u201d he tells me. \u201cWhen you get knighted like that, when it\u2019s Chaining Day in Long Beach, forget the brand.\u201d Curry discreetly tucks the necklace under the collar of a T-shirt with his signature on it. He ducks through the side door into the gym, and the crowd goes wild.<\/p>\n

Curry grew up a long, long way from anything like the LBC. His mom, Sonya, was an educator. She taught Stephen and his two younger siblings, Seth and Sydel, \u201ca little street talk \u2014 remember where you came from \u2014 because that\u2019s what my mom would always tell us,\u201d she says. Stephen\u2019s grandmother graduated from the first integrated class in Radford, Virginia, where Sonya was raised in a trailer and once saw a Klan member ride a horse across the outfield of a softball game. His father, Dell, grew up in a house packed with seven people, where Stephen\u2019s other grandmother lives to this day.<\/p>\n

But Dell played 16 seasons in the NBA, and Stephen lived in a mansion with nine bathrooms on 16 acres outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. While Curry was an NBA courtside regular in middle school, \u201cI wasn\u2019t in the pocket of privilege,\u201d he insists. Curry\u2019s parents allotted $200 in back-to-school shopping, for five outfits a year. Sonya dragged him to volunteer at his dad\u2019s program for the computer illiterate. The family also took in kids from time to time.<\/p>\n

Dell says he and Sonya gave Stephen \u201cthe talk,\u201d about how to put up with the cops. \u201cBut what\u2019s the worst thing he ever did in high school? He got a speeding ticket in a school zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

As loud as the threat is from Trump,\u201d says Curry, \u201ca similar loudness is needed on the other side.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stephen and his brother starred at Charlotte Christian, a $23,000-a-year private academy, while traveling on the local hoops circuit. He wasn\u2019t exactly a dedicated student, but he\u2019s still kind of a nerd: Sydel fondly recalls Stephen staying up late with her to watch The Princess Diaries<\/em> on repeat. \u201cLike, the dude\u2019s favorite day is Pi Day,\u201d she adds. \u201cWhat cocky person has a favorite day that is a math<\/em> holiday?\u201d Stephen and Seth were among a dozen or so students of color out of close to 300, and they found themselves brushing off casual racism. \u201cIt was a weird experience \u2014 the undertones and how different we were,\u201d Stephen says. \u201cWe kinda just rolled through it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wardell Stephen Curry II has rolled through pretty much everything. At six feet and 160 pounds as a senior in 2006, Curry received exactly zero offers from major college basketball programs. By 2008, he\u2019d set the Division I record for most three-pointers in a single season, leading tiny Davidson on a Cinderella run through March Madness. On campus, he dominated the intramural softball team, the ping-pong and pool tables, and cornhole. When he found a wallet with $160 in the dining hall, Curry posted on the student server until he tracked down its owner.<\/p>\n

In matters pertaining to the court, though, Curry can be provoked into that \u201cNight Night\u201d swagger and even anger. His teammates call it \u201cWardell Mode.\u201d Like when the announcer at a Davidson away game mispronounced his name as Steev-en<\/em>, and he dropped 38 points. Or that time he got a call on the course in Cabo informing him that his star teammate Klay Thompson had a torn Achilles, and he smashed his iPhone into a golf cart. Or even at the Boys & Girls Club, where a pair of middle-school twins challenged him to a shooting contest; Curry blocked three shots.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, he activates Wardell Mode in the boardroom. When Curry received early sketches for next year\u2019s animated Netflix reboot of the classic sitcom Good Times,<\/em> which he\u2019s co-producing through his content company, Unanimous Media, he pushed back on sharp-edged faces evoking African masks. Amid Russian prisoner-swap negotiations for the wrongfully detained WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, Curry says his contacts in the Biden administration rebuffed an offer to help (\u201cThey were telling us, \u2018Don\u2019t say anything\u2019\u2009\u201d), so he prioritized airtime for Griner while hosting this summer\u2019s ESPY Awards and wore her jersey onstage. In 2020, Curry felt that a longtime ally in his business orbit abused his trust and, those still close to him say, his money. After a heated face-to-face outside his house, \u201cI kinda lost it,\u201d Curry says. He kicked a basketball through a door and broke down crying.<\/p>\n

Curry\u2019s primary sponsor has presented its own headache. In 2013, he left Nike for a roughly $4 million-per-year deal with Under Armour. Then came the designs for one of Curry\u2019s early signature sneakers, which were ridiculed online as \u201can outdoor bowling shoe\u201d \u2014 and in his own locker room. Founder Kevin Plank claims that he developed ensuing models together with Curry. But some people familiar with the process remember Plank personally emphasizing the UA logo, just as Curry\u2019s imprimatur was coming into its own; sales of his 2016 sneaker were disappointing. (An Under Armour representative says there is \u201ccomplete alignment\u201d on shared branding.)<\/p>\n

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Through Eat.Learn.Play., Curry and his wife Ayesha have funded pop-up libraries in the Bay Area. Photograph by Andre D. Wagner. Jacket and pant by Kenzo. Books courtesy of courtesy of Reparations Club, Los Angeles.<\/cite><\/div>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t quite an understanding of what it took to run a business like that properly,\u201d Curry says of Under Armour\u2019s commitment to his shoes at the time. He pauses. \u201cSo, yeah, I got mad.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the partnership already boiling, Plank appeared on CNBC praising the business mindset of then-newly-elected Trump as \u201ca real asset to the country.\u201d Asked about the comment in an interview the next day, Curry shot back, \u201cI agree with that description, if you remove the \u2018et.\u2019\u2009\u201d Curry reached out to Plank privately, and while the Under Armour founder tells me \u201cthere was zero beef,\u201d Curry\u2019s frustration lingers. \u201cWhen you represent a company that big,\u201d he tells me, \u201cyou can\u2019t just fly by the seat of your pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At a come-to-Jesus summit with Plank in the summer of 2018, Curry says, he made clear that he was thinking about leaving for the competition: \u201cCertain things needed to change, or else.\u201d Nodding toward his crotch, he adds, \u201cI put it on the table.\u201d After the meeting, Plank agreed to establish Curry Brand as its own subsidiary, in the mold of Jordans.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to raise my voice to get mad,\u201d Curry says. \u201cThat\u2019s the best part about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

CURRY\u2019S RISE HAS has interlaced directly with historic racism, bigotry, and political chaos \u2014 with American protest and athlete activism not seen since the Sixties. And yet Curry has remained a reluctant culture warrior. He analyzes political issues like an opponent\u2019s defense, studying \u201cwhere the loopholes are, where the missteps are,\u201d maneuvering to say less and, as Obama taught him, do more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe current events of the Trump era, I don\u2019t wake up and say, \u2018I wanna go at that conversation,\u2019\u2009\u201d Curry, who has 75 million followers, tells me. Fans and the media, though, have come to expect the liberal NBA\u2019s superstars to respond to CNN headlines. \u201cSome of this stuff falls on your doorstep and people want a perspective or comment, and sometimes you cough that up unsolicited.\u201d Which hasn\u2019t always gone so well for him. \u201cI think I probably need to do the work of looking back at the last 10 or 12 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we did exactly that over the course of five interviews this summer, Curry repeatedly agonized over a moment he wishes he could take back. In 2014, the Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was exposed as a vile racist in recordings published by TMZ, in the middle of the upstart Warriors\u2019 playoff series against them. Curry privately discussed a unified player response with the Clippers star Chris Paul, twice, because Curry and his teammates wanted to walk off the court after the jump ball. But the Warriors ultimately deferred to their opponents\u2019 protest of choice \u2014 the Clippers wore warmup shirts with the logo inside out, then discarded them at center court \u2014 and to the league commissioner\u2019s lifetime ban of Sterling.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne of my biggest regrets is not boycotting the game,\u201d Curry told me. \u201cThat was a moment to leverage beyond anything we probably could have said.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He also returned frequently to early 2016, when the Republican-led Legislature of North Carolina passed an anti-trans law banning people from using their bathroom of choice. The NBA was considering its own boycott to move the league\u2019s all-star game from Curry\u2019s hometown of Charlotte, but Curry said publicly that he hoped the game would go on, \u201cregardless of where you fall on that law.\u201d Only after the NBA stood its ground \u2014 and the backlash against him from activists on the left subsided \u2014 did Curry flip in support of \u201csome changes\u201d to the draconian legislation. \u201cThat\u2019s when I first realized,\u201d Curry says now, \u201cyou\u2019re not gonna please everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get attacked as athletes sometimes when you don\u2019t want to say something \u2014 \u2018I need to get more educated,\u2019 there\u2019s all these lines that people use,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt kind of seems like you\u2019re soft or like you\u2019re equivocating or avoiding whatever the situation is. Honestly, in that moment, yes, I could have been a lot stronger on a point of view, but I wasn\u2019t prepared to do that at the time, so I don\u2019t regret that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBeing active is more important than the understanding that, with every candidate, there\u2019s not a full, down-the-ballot agreement on everything that they do,\u201d Curry says. Photograph by Andre D. Wagner. T-Shirt by Hanro. Jacket and pant by Levi\u2019s x Denim Tears. Necklaces by VEERT.<\/cite><\/div>\n

He did not equivocate at his 2017 season-opening press conference when asked if the Warriors would attend a potential championship ceremony at the White House: \u201cI don\u2019t wanna go.\u201d At a rally that night, President Trump ranted about Colin Kaepernick\u2019s peaceful protest of kneeling for the national anthem, then tweeted in the morning after watching Curry\u2019s remark on Fox & Friends<\/em>: \u201cStephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!\u201d Rolling out of bed, Stephen and his wife, Ayesha, thought about hiring more security for themselves and their daughters, five-year-old Riley and two-year-old Ryan. But he still appreciates that LeBron James got his back with one of the most popular tweets ever: \u201cU bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain\u2019t going!\u201d<\/p>\n

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By that Sunday, more than 200 players, coaches, and owners were taking a knee in the NFL. The Warriors were about to play the first preseason game of the new NBA season, and fans wondered if they would kneel too, maybe all season long. Curry says he sent Kaepernick private signals of support, but when it came to a public display, Golden State\u2019s veteran players argued at a team meeting that Kap\u2019s gesture had been co-opted. The champs decided not to kneel.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Curry detests the empty symbolism that has followed Kaepernick\u2019s initial protest, which had real impact: \u201cAll the ways that they want to nitpick what Colin\u2019s done, from the time he kneeled to now, you can\u2019t tell me that there hasn\u2019t been progress and change and a renewed sense of accountability amongst a lot of athletes, like, \u2018Which side of the fence are you on? Are you doing something or not?\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Warriors next played in Washington, D.C., they visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture with local students. After Curry won his third title in 2018, he led a delegation of players to Obama\u2019s personal office, chopping it up about golf and giving back. He donated $10,000 to a violence-prevention group to help Kaepernick complete a million-dollar philanthropic pledge, and he wore an #ImWithKap jersey to watch the Super Bowl with his infant son, Canon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Kaepernick stuff was really high-profile,\u201d Warriors head coach Steve Kerr tells me. \u201cBut what stands out to me with Steph is how many things he does that go unnoticed, and that is right on-brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

PROTESTING AIN\u2019T EASY when you\u2019re Stephen Curry, though. He knows that the fact of his presence at any march, for any cause, can overshadow the work of the community organizers and politicians he has come to know. \u201cThat part gets awkward for me sometimes,\u201d he says. Since 2020, Curry has increasingly appreciated that his optimism and marketability need not be reserved for basketball fans and sneaker executives. He can play his politics in the shadows.<\/p>\n

A week before Covid shut down the NBA, a gun-prevention roundtable turned emotional after a young man said that being in a room with Curry validated his choice to escape cycles of violence in East Oakland. When the cameras came out for the ensuing \u201cpeace walk,\u201d however, Curry dodged the social media shine. A week after the murder of George Floyd, Curry pulled up to a rally organized by his teammate Juan Toscano-Anderson in a bucket hat and shades. \u201cHe took his mask off, and I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, shit, it\u2019s Steph!\u2019\u2009\u201d says Toscano-Anderson. By then, resistance had become normalized enough for Curry to take a knee without anybody saying much at all.<\/p>\n

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Are there some people who trust Steph more than they trust me?\u201d asks Dr. Anthony Fauci. \u201cThank goodness<\/em>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Curry has, with caution, signed up for the Washington spotlight. Dr. Anthony Fauci says the feedback he received from his chats with Curry on Instagram Live and YouTube during the height of the pandemic \u2014 featuring the presidential medical adviser, a former high school point guard, in front of the basketball hoop in his office \u2014 showed that Curry had won over many fans who doubted the truth about Covid. \u201cAre there some people who trust Steph more than they trust me? Thank goodness<\/em>,\u201d Fauci tells Rolling Stone<\/em>, \u201cbecause he can get to some people that might be skeptical.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August 2020, on the final night of the almost entirely prerecorded and boring Democratic National Convention, Curry made his most overt political move yet. Producers had a time slot to fill before Ashley and Hunter Biden, the latter of whom makes Kaepernick look like Carlton Banks, introduced their father\u2019s prime-time speech. Curry taped a segment about the importance of voting, with Ayesha \u2014 a cookbook author and influencer with 10 million followers of her own \u2014 and their absurdly adorable daughters. Ayesha tells me she was once again afraid of \u201cpeople who are ready to defend\u201d on behalf of \u201ca playground bully\u201d in Trump. But it was classic Curry \u2014 relatable, relevant, and a little bit spicy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t sure, more so from a faith perspective, especially around abortion,\u201d Curry admits of his family\u2019s star turn at the convention. \u201cWhen you endorse a president, you have a lot of noise comin\u2019 at you: \u2018Daughter killer! Baby killer!\u2019\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009That\u2019s the fine line of knowing the beast of politics, where, especially when we\u2019re talking about presidential elections, being active is more important than the understanding that, with every candidate, there\u2019s not a full, down-the-ballot agreement on everything that they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Curry at \u201cEat.Learn.Play., the 8th Annual Christmas,\u201d at Oakland Arena in 2020. Noah Graham\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/div>\n

Curry\u2019s mother began to speak publicly this year about having an abortion before Stephen \u2014 and having considered another while pregnant with him. Curry tried explaining to me that he considers himself neither pro-choice nor pro-life. He didn\u2019t feel an urge to speak out against the Roe v. Wade<\/em> reversal; he had an imaginary older brother in mind. When I brought up his Pentecostal megachurch and Christian values relating to abortion, Curry said, \u201cI have certain beliefs that not everybody vibes with. As long as there\u2019s equality, in the sense of you having all your protections and your rights as a citizen, that should be the very low bar for everybody to adhere to.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Curry views his role as an activist as being an activator, a table setter for unity. Last year, his team of advisers excited him about an idea to rally young voters for local elections in this year\u2019s midterms. He bounced a \u201cStart in Your Town\u201d concept off of Obama, Sen. Cory Booker, and the voting-rights champion Stacey Abrams, who\u2019d counseled LeBron James on launching the advocacy group More Than a Vote in 2020. They said Curry didn\u2019t have the resources to create his own platform, so he joined the board of Michelle Obama\u2019s When We All Vote instead.<\/p>\n

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From the campaign trail where she is running for governor in Georgia, Abrams says she plans to engage Curry at the state level ahead of November. She\u2019d welcome his endorsement, although she considers him to be an activist for voting rights already, because she appreciates the burden of the beloved. \u201cThe reach that he has \u2014 that athletes have \u2014 sometimes adds an extra layer of responsibility,\u201d Abrams tells me. \u201cBut politics is a stalker. It\u2019s going to find you.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Curry knows that all too well, and he\u2019s up for taking time to make cameo appearances for candidates in places like Georgia and North Carolina this season. \u201cI\u2019m no Herschel Walker over here,\u201d he tells me, flashing a smile about the ex-NFL running back turned extreme Trumpian troll running for Senate in Georgia. \u201cBut with the level of influence I know I have, I feel like I\u2019m just getting started on that front.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s not laughing off the other bouncy orange object in the room, either. \u201cTake Trump seriously? Of course<\/em>,\u201d Curry says. \u201cMost of his rhetoric \u2014 before he was president, during his four years, and even now, if he tries to run again \u2014 has a tone of divisiveness that doesn\u2019t have a place in our country. As serious and loud as the threat is of him or whoever else is running for office, there\u2019s a similar urgency and a loudness that\u2019s necessary on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

HIDDEN INSIDE HIS red iPhone, Curry keeps a photo of a handwritten page of notes outlining the future of the Curryverse. He spelled out his goals in 2020, while holed up at the family compound in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Lifetime deal w\/UA<\/em>: Check, almost.<\/p>\n

Create partnerships that are geared towards purpose<\/em>: Check. Through their foundation, he and Ayesha have tricked out a school bus as a food truck, hosted pop-up libraries, and brought 1,000 kids to an A\u2019s game this summer. They\u2019re also in the room with local politicians on issues like guaranteed meal plans and financial literacy. \u201cThere\u2019s more activism in that,\u201d Stephen says, \u201cin terms of how legislation can solve issues we\u2019re trying to put a Band-Aid on.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the top of the handwritten goals, though, taking up nearly half the page, is a section devoted to golf: North Star is getting Black\/minority golfer on PGA Tour.<\/em><\/p>\n

In late August in San Francisco, Curry stood at the teeing ground for the first hole of the Curry Cup. It was the culmination of the first season of his Underrated golf tour \u2014 a fully funded feeder program supporting the next generation of golfers, and CEOs, of color. There was a documentary crew in the trees. As Curry and I followed a pairing of top recruits down the fairway, he whispered to me, \u201cThey can play<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curry had his hands in his track-pant pockets and his eyes on the green, envisioning the future of his tour \u2014 \u201ca solid two hours, back nine, prime time\u201d \u2014 when a 17-year-old named Hope Hall finished her second shot and handed him an envelope. He thanked her, wished her luck, and jumped back in the cart to the selfie line. Curry began to read the letter: I will be heading to Dartmouth tomorrow to play golf and major in engineering. I will do this with more confidence in knowing I belong there.<\/em> This school year, Hall is expected to be the only Black female golfer in the Ivy League. Curry has also funded the rebirth of the golf team at Howard University for more than $1 million. \u201cStephen\u2019s impact,\u201d coach Sam Puryear says, \u201cis greater than Tiger Woods\u2019 impact in the minority community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Curry, center, joins Golden State teammates and coaching staff in kneeling during the national anthem in 2021. Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/\u201dSan Francisco Chronicle\u201d\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/div>\n

Focus on basketball for best years of my career<\/em>: Check? Curry\u2019s body doesn\u2019t respond to heavy offseason workouts or his secret love of Chipotle like it used to. But he has four more years left on his $215 million contract, and Curry tells me he\u2019d like to play \u201cat least<\/em> that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe championships are just getting in the way,\u201d he adds, picking a comb at a gray hair or three.<\/p>\n

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Heading into his 14th NBA season, Curry \u201cabsolutely\u201d believes the Warriors can win back-to-back titles, as they did with Durant before he struck out on his own in 2019. Their breakup was precipitated, Durant\u2019s confidants have explained to me, in part by the adoration Curry received, and the impression that Durant had just glommed onto an existing champion in 2016. But Curry thinks his ex-teammate is \u201cmisunderstood,\u201d and when Durant requested a trade from the Nets this past June, Curry talked with his brother Seth, the Brooklyn shooting guard, about a possible reunion of the Warriors superteam. \u201cFor him to even be entertaining having KD back on the team speaks to his character,\u201d Seth tells me.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As Curry told me in early August, while Durant was still on the market, the Warriors discussed a blockbuster more seriously<\/a>: \u201cThere was a conversation internally about \u2018If he was available, would you?\u2019 I was never hesitant. Every team has those conversations, and obviously, they\u2019re gonna call me and ask, \u2018How do you feel about it?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of playing with KD and knowing who he is as a person, from our history in those three years, I think KD\u2019s a really good dude. I think he has had certain things happen in his life that hurt his ability to trust people around him, in a sense of making him feel safe at all times. So all of those things, I understand, having played with him and gotten to know him. I love<\/em> that dude.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you said, \u2018Oh, KD\u2019s coming back, and we\u2019re gonna play with him,\u2019 I had so much fun playing with him those three years, I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hell, yeah!\u2019 Then you have to think: What does that actually mean? What does it look like? You tell me I\u2019m playing with [current Warriors teammates Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, and Draymond Green], I\u2019m like, \u2018Hell, yeah!\u2019 There\u2019s all types of emotion and things that happen to the league. And if anybody\u2019s saying that you wouldn\u2019t entertain that conversation \u2014 no disrespect to anybody on our team \u2014 you don\u2019t know how things work. But you also understand, like, if we run this thing back, I\u2019ve got complete confidence in my team that we can win it again, as constructed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Barack Obama speaks alongside Curry during the MBK Rising! My Brother\u2019s Keeper Alliance Summit in 2019. JOSH EDELSON\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

SOME DAYS, CURRY still surprises himself that he can float like a butterfly. Like on a typical morning this May, when he\u2019d wake at dawn to write his college thesis on gender equity in sports, then make his way down the three flights of his $31 million mansion in Silicon Valley for family breakfast, drop off the girls at school, ride to the Chase Center in San Francisco for practice, then flutter back around the Bay for dinner, and still break out the glue sticks back home with the kids, all before sundown \u2014 and all during the start of the NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so tired<\/em>,\u201d he complained to Ayesha.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re allowed to say that,\u201d Ayesha remembers replying. \u201cThis is great! This is progress.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Stephen and Ayesha met at church when he was 15. She remains his rock and role model. \u201cYou can\u2019t think that you\u2019re Superman,\u201d the older and wiser Stephen says, \u201cjust \u2019cause you can go 24\/7\/365.\u201d The MVP does see a therapist, you know. \u201cNot as much as I should, but I\u2019m active,\u201d Curry tells me. \u201cI realize there are certain things that are OK to get off your chest sometimes.\u201d He talks about marriage and parenthood, millions in the bank and millions up in his comments \u2014 \u201cthings that are so complicated, but there\u2019s a simple approach to how you manage it. And it\u2019s not that you\u2019re trying to change the situation; you\u2019re trying to change yourself<\/em> to handle<\/em> the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because there will be situations. Like when the Warriors won a playoff series in May, and the next afternoon, a teenage racist walked into a Buffalo supermarket with a Bushmaster XM-15. Ten days later, while Curry was preparing for a game in Dallas, he learned a gunman had holed up inside an elementary school 375 miles away, in a town called Uvalde. During the NBA Finals, the Warriors warmed up in T-shirts that blared \u201cEnd Gun Violence.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a shirt, but it\u2019s a message,\u201d Curry says. \u201cWhere does the message then lead to actual change?\u201d<\/p>\n

And there will be afternoons like July 4, when Curry sat on his couch in silence, watching the videos on his iPhone from Highland Park, Illinois, where a 21-year-old sniper set his sights on a parade. \u201cThis keeps happening,\u201d he said to Ayesha. \u201cWe keep having a conversation. It goes nowhere.\u201d The Currys didn\u2019t feel like celebrating America that day. They ate lasagna and turned in early. Curry still has nightmares of his team\u2019s arena becoming the site of yet another mass shooting. \u201cI think about that all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court will remain his safe space, always \u2014 even if the superhero needs to shed the cape every now and then to help out the rest of us down here. \u201cThere are more thoughts, as you get older, of that healthy insecurity: \u2018How long can this go?\u2019\u2009\u201d Curry explains. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of what\u2019s next, but the invincibility \u2014 the fact that when you\u2019re in your actual prime, you\u2019re not thinking anything else \u2014 now I have a healthy balance of both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wake up happy most days,\u201d he tells me, leaning his head against the window of a Mercedes and looking forward, as a fan in a Curry jersey walks past in the distance. \u201cWhat I have ahead of me is what I get<\/em> to do\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009and what<\/em> I\u2019m doing is how<\/em> I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Curry Is Putting It All on the Line The NBA superstar has changed the game of basketball for the better. Now, can he help change America? Photographs by Andre D. Wagner Sep 12, 2022 9:00 am Stephen Curry has come a long way since the curious case of the government plot from outer space.\u00a0Five Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[505],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43836,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43834\/revisions\/43836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}