GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 27, 2021

Steph Curry

Media Conference

Q. Might as well start on what is the topic around the team right now. Are you having conversations with Andrew and just what's your view of the situation?

STEPH CURRY: It's difficult. I mean, you ask everybody on the team, have 18 ways of explaining personal decision, the sense of urgency of the decision, understanding what the potential consequences and fall-out is. At the end of the day, it is up to him. I think it's no secret to that point. We obviously hope that he has all the right information and access to the right resources to ask all the questions he has on making decision.

We hope he's available. We hope it moves in the right direction. My opinion is obviously I got it and ready to be available, and following, you know, the mandates and whatnot. But that's kind of where it is and you know, the next coming weeks and how it all plays out is going to be entirely up to him. We obviously hope he's available and with us and kind of go from there.

It's difficult. Everybody is in a difficult kind of position in that respect, and we've all made decisions that you feel like are right for and you your family and whatever the case is. So this is no different, whether you agree with him or not. You have to let it play out.

Q. The idea of having a starting small forward not there for 41 home games, is that something that's acceptable as a teammate or do you have to understand that that might be the price of this?

STEPH CURRY: Acceptable is a strong word. It's not ideal. But I don't think anybody felt -- expected to be asked that question on something that's a voluntary decision in that sense. We'll see. We hope not. We hope we have a full team for the entire year and understand that, you know, on all accounts and what the research says and things like that, that it's safe and we're all in the same boat.

So we hope he's available, and if not, we'll adjust accordingly. But we hope not.

Q. You've done a lot of work during the pandemic to get information out there and to try and get the answers, and your Instagram with Fauci was a huge success. Have you sit down with him and talked to him and expressed your opinion and tried to bring him to the people that can give him information?

STEPH CURRY: This has been an ongoing thing since the pandemic has started for everybody. Nobody is living under a rock in terms of what's actually happening in real life society. It's the patterns and trends that COVID has presented itself with since March of 2020, we've all been in the same boat. That's kind of how it started. Everybody has access, especially in this environment, you have access to the experts and the people that are analyzing and studying and researching this thing every single day and hopefully you tap into that and again, it's about making a decision that you understand the consequences on both sides, and it's kind of where you leave it.

Q. You look at this team, you got yourself, Draymond, Klay, now Andre back, the Championship guys, not a lot in the middle age-wise and you have these two teenage rookies, Wiseman, Jordan is pretty young. Does it feel separated or do those lines blur sometimes? Do you feel like this is a roster that's pulled together from a spectrum of ages?

STEPH CURRY: Yeah, I mean, if you look at it on paper, that's definitely something that jumps off the page in terms of I think me, Klay have been here ten years together and Draymond as well and Andre for a significant portion of that and the best days of it. I know how we operate and we have a crop of amazingly talented, high potential energetic young guys who have a lot to accomplish in this league ask we hopefully can marry the two in terms of what we do on the floor every single night.

I like the challenge of it because there's a sense of urgency on a training camp and early in the preseason to see who kind of steps into certain roles and who you can kind of count on especially until Klay gets back and we understand what our rotation is going to look like and the roster is going to look like the second half of the season.

But there's a lot of opportunity for guys to step up and take advantage of you know, feeling out that rotation and being significant pieces to the puzzle. And we have three lottery guys who are young but are eager to figure it out and have been grinding all summer long. Been here and seen them put the hours in, and hopefully they can step in and gain confidence early.

Wiseman is one especially who had such an interesting year last year, not having a Summer League, last summer, this summer, missed most of training camp, dealing with injuries, and then one season-ending one. He never really got a full run of games that he can put some momentum together in the right direction. So he's always kind of chasing and feeling like he had to prove himself. So hopefully this year, I know it's not an ideal start again but hopefully he can kind of simplify the game and understand how he's going to help us win and that will hopefully get him in the right position where he can develop his skillset even more.

So I'm excited about the opportunity and the challenge. It's going to take a full-fledged commitment from the coaching staff and the player development staff and the core that we have to put it all together. But we have got pieces.

Q. Somewhat complicated question. Klay talked about his dad being a former NBA mayor, made a lot of money and being sheltered from racism, but the last year has woke him up from a lot of ways that has really energized him in terms of social justice. Having talked to your mom or your grandmother, they have kept things aware since your youth but can you relate to Klay and have you seen a difference in him in terms of that social justice mentality, race mentality?

STEPH CURRY: Absolutely. It's interesting just even that awareness of it being okay and understanding our childhoods were a little different because of who our parents were and financial resources and whatnot but it's never too late to activate and become more accountable and responsible to how you can move the needle. That's different for everybody.

Like you said, I didn't necessarily every day experience it myself but I was educated enough and told stories and going back to where my parents grew up and all that to understand the importance of being a part of that change, I guess, and using your platform and resources and the microphone to speak. I love that Klay saying that. I love that anybody who is open and outwardly accountable to that is taking it seriously and being honest about their journey with it for sure.

Q. How much has he changed since the initial injury off the court?

STEPH CURRY: It's kind of hard to summarize it but I feel like he is just much more comfortable in where basketball is in his life and other things that he has going on that bring him joy. But that only increases the appreciation of being able to play at this level and really commit himself to the work that it's going to take during rehab to get back to 100 percent because that could be demoralizing for a lot of people when your greatest joy is taken away for so long but he's found other things that give him life and fun and joy and a sense of purpose, if you will, and basketball has a big piece of that but he has to work his ass off to get back there and it's no easy task at all. So that balance is really, really nice to see because at one point is was just basketball and basketball only and I think that's an important thing to realize just as a human being.

It's going to be really gratifying when he gets to the finish line and has the moment what he deserves when he comes back, and hopefully he can realize, you know, the positives, if you will, that have come out of it for sure.

Q. Talking to Damion earlier and he said that he's never felt more at piece in this juncture of his career. Went through that phase where he felt he had to prove he belonged and he said he's never felt as much as peace. Curious to where you are in your career, completely different situations, but this chapter going into this year, what's your outlook like?

STEPH CURRY: I feel like I've always lived like this but I'm all the way just in the moment just enjoying what's happening right now. There's always, how do you take last year and bring it to this year and try to meet that expectation or that level of play. How do you -- kind of the question earlier, how do you make this entire roster work with the old and the young and all of that, or the older and the younger.

There's so many things that we just don't know but I'm I guess at peace and I'm living in the now and just enjoying the fact that the season is here. I think when you get at this stage, going into my 13th year, nothing's new. Nothing's surprising, and you have to really like be intentional about how much fun you have at this stage of your career. And it only happens by just staying in the now committed to what that means. However you describe that, just being at peace or finding fun in everything, taking the challenge head-on, I'm right there and appreciative that obviously this summer, just to be able to know where I'm going to be the next five years and have that kind of off the table, I'm excited about that, too.

Q. How was the Ryder Cup?

STEPH CURRY: It was amazing. I've never been to a Ryder Cup before and seeing those guys at the highest level of competition. Learned a lot talking to MJ, talking to the guys, being in that environment, got the juices flowing for the start of training camp. Hopefully, I don't know if I ever go back to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, but it was a good first trip though.

Q. We all learned that a lot can change in a year and a half with everything, but is the plan right now as you sit here, in three years, to be in Paris for Team USA?

STEPH CURRY: I have no idea. I'm terrible at answering those questions. I think I talked in June, talking about this year, I was honest, I was still 50/50. I didn't know if I was going to play or not. I have no idea.

Q. You mentioned MJ. I don't know how often you got a chance to talk to him growing up in Charlotte but what have you learned most from him through the conversations you've had with him over the years?

STEPH CURRY: One, I'm not alone in being a psychopath about golf. I do know that. He might have me beat for sure.

Just that competitive spirit never dies. The same killer instinct he had as a player, in business, has translated into his presence like around a Ryder Cup team and some of the captains and players and stories he can tell from being there for the last 11 Ryder Cup asks stuff like that. That spirit that made him who he is in basketball permeates everything in life and that's such a cool kind of concept. I mean, you have to find balance but that's such an encouraging kind of take on how he just lives his life in that respect because he gives everything he does his all and he wants to win everything. So it's not just talk; it's how he lives.

Q. Back to Klay. He said he does want to play until he's 40. But he was reflecting on how well he was playing in 2019 in those Final asks shooting and defending and just he sees himself getting to that level again but also has a perspective of it's not going to be right away. We talked about the maturity on some of these other fronts but in terms of basketball and knowing his body, have you seen that growth as well? Two years of rehabbing.

STEPH CURRY: Obviously I've seen it just in how he's attacked this rehab versus last one. I know there's circumstances you couldn't control with the pandemic and being away from staff and whatnot. But just his commitment to this process, understanding the sense of urgency of doing everything first class so that he gives himself the best chance to get back to 2019 Klay.

To your point, the awareness of the process, I was concerned about mentally how he would be because I'm sure there's going to be a moment maybe Thanksgiving or beginning of December where he's going to feel like he can walk out on the court and play 30 minutes just because he's that kind of -- he's got that dog in him and he's probably going to feel normal. There's going to be a lag effect of when they actually give him that clearance to suit up. Mentally that would seem like one of the hardest periods of his rehab when games are going and you feel the energy of the season, he feels good, he's going to practice with us and he's still got to wait.

Just the awareness of knowing the slow build and even just getting back to 100 percent ready to play but also 100 percent of what he used to be is great, because you've got to be patient with it. That's probably going to be a battle he's going to have to fight mentally day-in and day-out especially towards the end of his return to play.

Q. Klay has talked about envisioning that night when he comes back, two years, it's going to be a home game we've been told. What do you envision that night?

STEPH CURRY: It's going to be beautiful, beautiful basketball. Honestly it's probably going to be emotional for sure because of everything we talked about but I'm excited. It's as close as it's ever been and will continue to get that way. The crowd will show him so much love like he deserves.

I just went to that moment -- I told you I'm staying in the now -- I just kind of went there. I'm sure it's going to be amazing, whatever other adjectives you can throw in there is probably not going to do it justice at all.

Q. Bob keeps saying he wants to see this team and he basically ruled out all trades, well, not technically but what is your view of this team and its potential and what it could be and could you know that since there's a piece here -- the whole contingent has not been there? Remember the full squad back in the day?

STEPH CURRY: Yeah, it's hard to be able to lay out like we are going to do this, we are going to do this, this person is going to be playing this roll. Give some clarity there. I feel like we don't have huge holes in the roster. It's just there's a lot of potential for young guys to step up in a meaningful way probably faster than we've been used to in the past with how we've won because we haven't really relied on rookies to -- we talked about this a little bit last year, we haven't really relied on rookies to come in and play significant roles balanced with our experience and the core.

But we haven't had three lottery picks either. It's a nice balance of trying to figure out what that looks like. We want to be healthy to give ourselves the best chance to see what that looks like. Take advantage of a full training camp that I think the o from player development and our assistant coaches, we've made some structural changes that will hopefully accentuate the needs of what we need and give us some structure of getting to that, to be able to answer that question and understand how to identify what the young guys need to do to help us win.

Our culture remains the same and everything that we do on the court and how we play, it will be probably pretty similar to years past where, you know, it highlights how different we are as a team, especially when me and Klay are out there and Draymond.

Q. We all know how much luxury tax this team has paid in the last few years -- but they did not use their tax level -- there could be spots for -- would you expect them to be aggressive? Would you want them to be very aggressive and would you be bothered if they have a chance to use it and they do not use it for financial reasons?

STEPH CURRY: Yes, to all those answers.

Q. You would want them to be very aggressive?

STEPH CURRY: Yes, yes and yes.

Q. Have they told you they will be?

STEPH CURRY: Yes, in the sense of we're having those conversations where you have to be on the same page terms of what would fill that role and that need. But yes, I would expect all three of those questions to be yes. Does that make sense?