Steph Curry

When would the Durant came along in July? I'll never forget the text message that you send him, because him and Rich kept asking, is Steph OK. And for people who watch this, you gotta understand. Before you sign, before you sign.

And it blew me away even. Lead by example with Bob Myers, is presented for the people by Caesar's Sportsbook. You bet you get with Caesar's rewards. Must be 21 more older.

Welcome to Lead by example on your host Bob Myers. That sounds good. That sounds good. That's my interaction.

That's a big thing. There's all these crazy lights. Steph Curry's a guest. How you doing?

Doing fantastic. Thanks for coming on. Absolutely. I don't think we've had a lot of it.

We've never done anything like this. Never. No. None of all these high level productions.

We've had some good conversations about the last 10 years. Private ones. Yeah. What?

So what do you, toughest, I met you, what was that? Your third year? Same year? What was your second?

My second third year. Yeah. What was the, I have my answer. But what's the toughest part of the Steph Curry journey?

Like even before NBA? That's a good question in terms of, I don't know how you look at it in your life, because I think it's a beauty in how I see it. It's always trying to be in the moment. And so like every season of life you're in, the highs and lows you feel them, and you kind of live it hard in terms of what that experience is like, what lessons you learn, what diversity you go through, how you deal with success, how you deal with failure and all that.

So when I look back, it's always hard to kind of rank. Sure. The experience is like what's the hardest, because even right now, in the present day, these are hard. Yeah.

Yeah. To me, obviously the perspective of how blessed we are in life to be doing this, the job and all that, and family, and all the opportunities you have. There are certain challenges that you're facing now that to me like, really need to solve it. But, you know, injuries, the season, kind of around when I met you when I was going through the ankle problems and stuff where you get a taste of what it's like to play at this level.

You understand how much you get fulfilled by it, how much you love the work, the challenges of trying to figure it out. But the injuries keep you off the court so consistently, so frequently you start to doubt everything that you poured into your craft. And like the cloud hanging over, will I even just be healthy enough to get my two feet on the floor and even give myself an opportunity to be like a player that I want to be. And that was over a two-year kind of stretch, off and on, where a lot of dark days and a lot of patience, a lot of support from family, people that you trust, you can kind of speak positivity and life into you, confidence into you.

And it gave me a great perspective for what's happened ever since, because I know how fragile the game is, how fragile life is in terms of nothing to really guarantee. So I have a immense level of gratitude for everything that's happened since. I remember we were sitting there thinking you were spraying your ankle. Just walking.

Which is great. You never even see that, right? I don't know if I've seen anybody say it. I don't think I've seen it before since.

I've seen people with bad luck where you're landing on space, whatever, having a full injury and all that. The one I remember was in San Antonio. That was the wildest one where I got to rebound. I got to outlet pass and I turned to go run.

And it just basically went to the police office. Nobody would have hit it. And then you just look back like what I felt like for is going without the big braces. So it was a weird time.

How did you, I remember sitting there with you one time. I think we were at the Jackson Center. You couldn't practice. And you had your leg ankle nice.

And I had a thought. I think I said to you. I think I said this isn't, this is not, we can't do this anymore. Because remember you were playing and then getting hurt and then trying to end because of you who you are, you kept trying.

And I remember going, we're done here. Do you remember that or not? I don't know. You mean it in a different way?

The lockout year, because I had another surgery after that and that off season. But that was the year and a half mark of how long I had to deal with it. There was just rehab every day. There was nothing about basketball.

It was just me trying to get on the court and be available. And just how frustrating that was. I'm sure not only for me, obviously for you, for coach, for the team, as he planned it and not how long he'll be out. I'm trying to find any type of expectation or consistency on that front.

I remember going on a knife year before that and then going on a second time, which was crazy. Because you were part of my dad, my agent, and the doctor. There's three different outcomes that could come out. You're going to go under.

And we're going to try to make the right call on whether it's just clean up or whether it's a reconstruction or whether it's some other intervention we can have. But these are the three options that we have. You're going to go under and wake up. We'll let you know what it looks like.

That was a really scary experience for sure. But obviously that's the part of the blessing I have people around you that you can trust that we want into that kind of decision and walk up. And it was the least invasive option that came out of the base case scenario, which was a relief. But then that was that restarted the work that was only necessary to get through the recovery process, which is another four or five months.

I remember sitting at Casa del Mar, saying things like post surgery. I think I said, if you get out of this, which I think we all thought you would then, I think I said, can you work on leading this team? I don't remember that. You don't remember much of what I tell you.

Because I remember you sound like I remember the lessons. Because when we traded Monte, we were in Sacramento. I remember Coach Jackson pulled me in the hallway. He was like, you're getting the keys to the team.

I was like, all right. He's passionate. He's a good one. But I didn't want to be ready for the message at the time.

And that was that summer, the same vibe of not only. I mean, obviously you need people to pour a vision into you, I guess, in terms of what you're capable of, which are full potential. And not just as a player, but as somebody that can impact a lot of them in other different ways, in fact, the organization, through leadership, who kind of walk into the accountability of what that means. And thankfully, I've heard this saying now when the student is ready to teach it with you, that was a very strong inflection point in my life.

Because you realize what it, you have to be yourself first and foremost, whatever your personality is. You were saying that you were trying to change like who I am, how I approached things. But to realize the opportunity that I had not to be a very basketball player, but to, again, I guess, walk into a role of leadership that wasn't going to be easy, but demanded another level of awareness and commitment, consistency, and kind of wisdom, I guess, in terms of what does it actually mean in figuring it out for myself. It's crazy, maybe the one NBA player that the coach says, it's your team now, I'm handing the keys.

Who's NBA players? Give me that. Give me those keys. I should have had this.

Here we go. You're kind of like a gas coach. That's what you need me to do. He was good to mark.

I know he credited my credit. But what did it feel like for him? Because I always tell people one of my favorite parts of who you are as your confidence. Kind of unwavering, not showy, but real, pure, legit confidence in your ability.

I think that's so hard for people, no matter how successful they are, to actually have that deep in there. I believe in myself in the midst of a lot. But then he comes along and takes it to another level with you and publicly complements you in a pretty big way. And I'm sure privately did it while he was coaching you.

What did that do? How did you feel that? How did you process that? The stuff he was saying about you?

So there's a, I'm trying to explain how I think, and how I felt scared the hell out of me at first. Because I do have like a, I guess I've been calling myself a healthy insecurity of, you should have confidence. And I do, and that's built off like my work ethic and the way I approach the game, life and all that. You have to deserve that confidence.

But I have a healthy insecurity of understanding. He says me and Cleo are the best at choosing back court and I would never see myself. But I believe it. Sure.

Then you're like, all right, cool. What are you going to do about it? Like going for how do you go to prove that to be true? And that insecurity is like what's coming next.

I never feel settled in that. Sure. Expectation, the title, the banner they put up, the headline, whatever it is. It's a weird kind of dichotomy.

Because when I'm out there in the court, I feel like I can do anything. And I have like this irrational confidence. The shots I take pass. The one handed the turnovers and look up at you and my mom.

Yeah, it looks great. Shot, you know, shot to take the way that you played on it. Like you get lost in, that's the confidence I have. But then, you know, I never kind of drink my, you know, the Kool-Aid enough to know, like, that just is going to continue to happen on its own.

Right. Forward. And you have to kind of continue to prove and double down that every single day. And that's where the healthy insecurity ends up.

Where is that? So you say the healthy insecurity, is it? Where is that? I've never seen that, really.

Like you'll show that much. That's in the work that I put in, though. That even like, you know, case of point last year, we went to finals, finals MVP, all that type of stuff. Celebrated had an amazing night, parade, all that.

Three days later, I was really thinking about, you know, when does the work start from next year? Because I was extremely proud of myself and proud of our team and proud of everything we accomplished. And then you're looking like, it's got, it's like the imposter syndrome all over the world. Yeah, I can't.

It's like what happened next. I started thinking about it. Yeah, I really, this guy. Is that coming from you or coming from what's around you?

That's coming from me. That's you. Like, it's not because now I got to live up to something more because of the expectations of people around me. That's your own thing.

Yeah. It might be kind of born through, like, just that underdog kind of mentality. Because you grew up. Yeah.

And you're like, nothing was ever happened. I thought it blessed life. Like, I was in the league. Like, when I was in the league.

You weren't the number one guy. Right. And basketball, everything I had was earned. I was a late bloomer.

And Davidson and all that. So that underdog mentality is always part of the DNA, no matter how much success you have. It's hard to articulate it because you're all the champs and all the accomplishments and all that. But if you're looking from where you began, that makes sense.

Not now. I mean, it's the whole kitchen. It's an art. And I've always been maintaining that.

So that's where, I guess, the drive comes from once, the gratitude comes from, and also realizing, like, the amount of people that it takes to do what we do at the high school. Like, there's a way to wear this appreciation. I've never had that too. No matter how big a spotlight gets.

I asked you a few months ago, I said, why don't you? Because I would know. Why don't you blame people more? Like, why don't you tell me why?

Because your mom said something to you. I mean, it's crazy. Remember, this is why I don't blame. This is where this is a story I remember that it's my response.

It's my that I didn't get me anywhere. Yeah, it's not going to get you anywhere. First, it sounds so cliche, but obviously you look and something goes wrong. What can you fix first?

But I don't think that's obvious. I mean, you think that's up to you. But why? Where did that?

So you said, you must have been, what, a certain age? And we're like, it's not my fault. And somebody was like, no, no. You got to look there first.

I don't think that's automatic. You might be to you. Yeah, you can kind of hold people accountable around you. And there's like tough conversations you got to have.

There's kind of pushing people along. And your first immediate thought has to be like, am I doing everything in my power to control the situation, to bring your best effort and not make it so much about the results? Do you remember where your word when your mom said that to you? Or was it not that vivid?

It's not that vivid. It's just a constant reminder of the standard, just accountability to yourself. My middle school was in eighth grade. She held me out of my first middle school game.

It was going to be like the auditions at the house. And I'm over here talking about the impact it's going to have on the best player on the middle school team. And I'm like, I have to be there. You're going to make.

You're going to, you're hurting them. Don't hurt the team. And she gives me that look. I know it's falling on deaf ears.

And she's like, no, you didn't handle your business. So you're going to have to go. Don't put on me. You know, why in the situation and all that.

And there was like no, you know, follow-up question. There was no issue. I felt it. That's one kind of story.

But it's mostly like the constant reminder for me and how she raised us. That you have to control the controllables. And most of that is what you do. And you have to be in a situation where you're blaming anybody else or pointing a finger elsewhere.

Because it's probably something that you can do first to help the situation. It's funny. Like I don't think many of you parents now are saying that they're kids. Like you can't go to game.

You didn't want to go on it. They could trash out the best player. But that's a. I mean, they're there.

Where someone says, is that what a career? He's invited a curry camp in the summer. He's like, hey, his mom calls. He can't come.

He's having a nice nap. So I called him. He'd be like, just let him come. Yeah, give me something.

It's funny. I know I just kind of just said it. But I do know because it's my job. You've never called me and said, what are we going to do?

And everybody thinks the last 12 years, or I've been used to 12 years now, have been all perfect. And that's not true. We know that's not true. I would have expected at one point or another, and not even been upset for you to say, I think one time you might have said, what is the plan?

But that's the closest you got to, whereas a lot of other people would have been way ahead of that deal. Is that? Are you more patient because you already had success? Or is that just you?

Because if there's a difference? Or do you have trust? I don't know what it is. Because you're a non-aggress.

No, we can talk about it. I know the value that everybody brings to the organization and me needing to do my job. I'm kidding. You're pretty good.

But being trusting one, and those are built on the reps of relationships and conversations and actions and all that you build trust with people that, place a point you coach, your teammates. It takes a lot for you to hit the panic button. You mean? Yeah, you.

No, this isn't something that just is over-light. Change was the situation. I'm pretty understanding of that and patient on that front. But I feel like you could talk about the success that's happened that maybe has built a level of help that patient's kind of take root because you've faced success with what that's been like and there's another level of confidence that you can get back there.

But even when we were going through coaching change back, we had some tough conversations around it. We were on different sides. The trust part was hopefully we got to get this right and letting the best out of where it was. I was not understanding that it's not my place to run the team.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's not my place to do all that. But it feels like now more than people are making that a star's place.

If the star was it, but I also feel like that's not been a recipe for success historically. It's just a matter of always keeping a big picture mentality of where you're going. We've been blessed because it has worked. Yeah, most times.

That's why we're also here. Probably most because of you. That's why we're also here. Most of you.

But it's also, I feel like if I do, if that call does come, you receive it a different way. Yeah, yeah. I would almost make the trust that we built. Well, it depends on the timing of that call.

Was it five years in, three years in? If it came, I mean, I think even now, if anybody got lucky enough to walk into a job where you were there, I think anybody in my position would feel a responsibility to give you every chance to succeed. That's right, Phil. That's built on your daily experience.

Yeah. I mean, that's not something where I act as a student. No, no, no, no. You know what I'm just saying?

You can say that because of the code type of word, culture that we have and all that that we've built. But I trust you because we've had conversations where you know, right wrong, you know, whatever the decision that comes out of that, you know, I've usually rocked with and trusted that was going to work and usually it has. It's the experience and also the results that kind of you have to make sure you're balancing. Because you can't be always just results but you've got any decision.

Yeah, no, no. I've hated every conversation. Or vice versa. Yeah.

There's a balance of a both. But that's built over time and built over years and revs in the commitment to what we're doing. So I feel like that is part of what we're trying to explain in terms of why the success has happened for someone. And you're the exception to that.

Like a lot of people have had my, they don't get you. Whereas you could probably work, if any GM, if any sport watches this, they're kind of like, who wouldn't love to work with this. Like that's more you, any GM is probably going to probably do whatever you want or be nice to you or talk to you or fill you in. But your ability to hear it and say respectfully always, it is what I think, but hey, you know, it's not whatever you think I'm okay, just explain it to me.

That's a rare thing for someone like you. More lead by example after this. Have you been betting with the Caesar Sportsbook and Casino app? If so, keep it up because every bet earns with Caesar's rewards.

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Sign off or activate now. And we're back when the Durant came along in July. I'll never forget the text message that you send him because him and Rich kept asking, is Steph OK? And for people to watch this, you gotta understand.

Before you sign. Before you sign. And I blew me away even. And because not uncommon for a star to feel like this is, I'm not sharing this with another star.

Not crazy and not judgmental. Like if a star is like, look, this guy's at my level. And some say more, some say less, but he's at my level. This is my, like he's going to take away from me, which a lot of people, players may or may not say, or they certainly say privately, I've heard, hey, no, that's too much.

You went way the other way, because even talking to him, and after July 1st, we were talking to him, and he was trying to decide, and Rich, they kept asking me that one question. What is Steph? You know, Draymond was a stream on a different cruder. You're a more subtle guy.

And so you weren't hitting him all the time, but you sent that one message and somebody sent it to me. And I could not believe the authenticity of it and the words you chose to use, even me knowing who you were, I was kind of like, wow, that is, you remember that? I do. Everything you just explained worked because I know myself, right?

I know how I could operate in that environment with somebody as a great basketball player. Great basketball player, he is, all the off court platform, and selling shoes and all that stuff. Like that all mattered. But I also know myself to know, like, I can exist in a situation where I know when to get out the way, I know when to leave, I know when to speak, I know how to find value in myself every single day.

And nobody was really going to threaten that part. I was just like, is this going to help us win? Am I going to enjoy playing basketball with him? Hell yeah.

Trying to explain all that to him in that moment. For him to trust that 100%. He didn't know you weren't. We played together on team USA stuff and played against him.

You know, I never spent time where, you know, I send it, I send it as, to your point, I hope he believes it, comes from an honest standpoint. And he could check with anybody around and say, you know, is he really like that? You know, they would give me that same validation and all that. But it all comes out.

And even like, to your point, even if you know yourself, you know, you can't exist there, that's not the wrong answer. It's just- But you had to check, I don't know if you've even had to. But a lot of people would sit for a moment and say, am I really okay with it? I don't know if it was all, if you're just like, yep.

You know, or you- No, I had to say, you didn't say anything. You didn't say anything. Okay, the message, the line I remember was, whether you're MVP or MVP, if it's yours, I'll be sitting there in the front row, like, congratulations. And I was kind of, I had this moment, like, wow, that could actually happen.

Like, Kevin could have been MVP. Oh, he's fine as a man. Yeah, no, he was fine as MVP. I mean, I was like, I mean, I don't know.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know.

I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Like, was that, what was checking that box?

Really for you? Did it, because you can't unhear what all the words- It was shocking to me, like, everybody- It felt amazing, only because I knew I didn't have to hear. Yeah, right. It was like, how powerful was that?

It was amazing because it was amazing, it was amazing because, shut the hell up. Leave me alone. That is not how it should be, right? It shouldn't be because of that.

It was about us winning again, first, and I was crying. No, that's why I was crying on the court on it and the whole deal, then getting that trophy. And it was literally just so I didn't have it. I still don't want to say that, I know for the rest of my life.

The rest of my life, I'll never have to. Yeah, I did. I'm fine. But it's hard, man.

Because I didn't feel, when we won with Cat, I didn't feel, I'm sure as a competitor, yeah, you'd love to get found. I didn't feel you feeling less because of that. I didn't see that. I didn't see any of that.

There was one game, 2018, Game 3. There was conversations, you go to the media, they're asking about it. You look at the stat lines and all that, and it's like, oh, if they sweep them, who really is getting a Katie or something? I know they don't have a guy.

I've been asking that question in the middle of the finals, so I see, as a human being, your mind starts to think about it and how it comes to mind it. And I play like trash in Game 3. Was it on your mind? No, afterwards.

I feel like you're out of the equation. So, yeah, in the middle of the game, I'm like, it's the balance of knowing the standard that I need to play it for us to win. The fact that I shot it horribly was kind of all over the place. I made one shot towards the end of Game 3, and Katie makes the big three.

We go out three, oh, and it's like, we're good. But the final day, I knew it was done after that. It was part of the emotional rollercoaster ride. Oh, that would have been cool to have kept that level of play going, because that might have got there.

But it's also, we won, and so you're dealing with a little bit of both of that. And it's more, I think Andre had his own shoulder and arm around me on the way back to the tunnel. We just won, and I was down to myself, because of how I played. And everybody took it as a context.

I thought he would just keep the final day, if he'd think away. I was like, yeah, I thought about it once or twice, but the real, real, real, real. He's gonna play well, but that's right. Typical gonna be a player, we won, and you didn't play well.

So yeah, it's just amazing to know the narratives that come around. And the fact that when you're in these positions that we are, they're gonna continue to, you know, invent new angles to kind of pick and pry on all that. But it was not many better feelings than the stage embossed. I was like, I would never have to get, and just ask that question again.

And a lot of people are like, I'm gonna, give it back. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, what's the thing now? What do you gotta prove, what is, you didn't win two, you gotta have something, right?

You gotta have something. LeBron in his 20th year is like, the fact that all year, no matter how he plays, they can use the, it's his 20th year. As a positive or negative, it turns to like how you critique his game. Anything he does, he's like, oh my God, he's in year 20, what is he?

Or if he plays like Trev, he's in his 20th year, what do you expect? You get that though, you play 20 years. You play 20 years. You gotta have a sense of humor about things that are said about you, and then just the stuff that comes with his job, it's this fun.

Yeah, I hope, I mean, it's not fun for you. I remember when we first, when he came, it was half time of preseason game. After the game, he goes, I see, I know now, and I said what, he goes, it was a preseason game, and Steph had taken two shots, like in the first half. He looked at the by-score, and I looked over at him to see, this was early with you guys.

Was he pissed? Just not, just kind of checking your body lane. You know what you guys lock room half, you can see he was upset. And he goes, yeah, he acted like he shot the ball 20 times.

And I was kind of like, didn't you know that that's what he would, and it wasn't like Kevin, he wasn't judging it. He was just like, wow, you know, he is, the teammate I thought he might be. So I thought that was pretty cool, because a lot of people go, Steph really is. And I say, yeah, that's, but you can see why people are skeptical.

Oh, for sure. I still get me, I still hear that as a compliment. Sure. A lot.

Yes. You know, people who know me, have been around, and all that, they value, they're like, it's even, it's great bad players, even better first. Yeah. Yeah.

I appreciate that feedback. It's still weird that, you know, I guess that is the exception in terms of, you know, just how you balance, you know, success and, you know, this journey we've been on and all that. But a part of that too, like you said, you see a lot about people just in the highs and lows, in between, I think you talked about yesterday, what we're going through now as a team, like some of the young guys, you see how they respond to certain challenges and, you know, failures and room for growth and all that. You see the behind the scenes guys getting extra shots of after games.

You see some guys that take some while to kind of get out of their own way. You see a little bit of everything. Yeah. That's just people, man.

Like me, and that's part of, you know, the ability to, I guess, you know, share who you are, share, you know, that impact with them, share a certain perspective of the way of looking at life, looking at things that can hopefully help with. Yeah. Whether that's intentional or just kind of, you know, by being in the vicinity, I really appreciate that ability I've had to rub off on a lot of different people. Yeah.

And hopefully they take a little bit of that. That means a lot to me, for sure. Yeah. I mean, from my, it's a good saying I heard where, I think you do this.

You don't know what you think. You don't think you're better than anybody, but you also don't think you're worse, which I think is watching you move through whatever, our team outside of it. I see you treat somebody that some would not treat as well, the same. And you obviously interact with people that are allegedly more than you.

And I know you mean, it seems like you meet them at the same level as you would someone else, but I don't think that's common. I actually don't think that's normal. But there's a lot we talk about. We were, I remember we were shooting around in Denver and playoffs and I said, can you walk back to the hotel?

And he said, I wish I could. I can't. Right? But that makes you not have security to walk across the street.

Right. And people wonder why all these guys are normal. It's kind of like, well, you can't walk from five feet. Why would you be?

What would you be like then? But how do you balance that part? How do you keep that sanity or balance? That's the one.

That's the one struggle because I do almost over exert. Oh, you give more than you might. That's something I've learned or I'm still learning over these last five, six years. Because I never imagined this would be my reality in a sense of you walk down the street and people know you.

And I want to come up to you and feel like you're approachable. Yeah. You have to be able to take that energy and do something. Yeah.

And I think the biggest thing is being around my dad when I was growing up. There are a lot of kids that I grew up with with my friends at school or people I played with and against coming through the ranks. My dad would come to games. He played in league for 16 years.

People knew him. Small scale. What I'm going through right now, but they come up to him and based on how he interacted with him or if he gave him time a day or any of his teammates, I remember being in those circles and guys would talk about it. And they're like, oh, he's that bull or he looked off and I'd hear it.

And I could tell how much it affected him. And those little interactions matter in a sense of like, if I see a kid or a family. You don't get to just don't want him. I have to find that balance of like, especially my mind.

You can't be everything for everybody. I know that. Yeah. I think that you can.

And especially when you're with your family, like my job as a husband and father is to provide an experience that normal childhood for my kids and allow us to enjoy each other's company and we're out in public and not have to worry about all that. But there's a fine balance to that. And it's interesting. It's learning curbs and big sacrifice at times.

But I guess I'm aware of it enough to know how to move and how to make sure people feel seen it in the right scenarios but also protect my sanity at the same time. Or leave by example after this. And we're back. When you're done, what do you hope they, what do you hope people say about you?

There's this clip. I got it. When I was a rookie or second year guy, you do like one of those confessional type cameras and the things that I wanted to all start getting into something, they asked that same question. I think I said, I want to be known as somebody who's a true professional, approached the game the right way, played hard every night or something.

Hopefully when I got a couple of championships, I think that was my line. Check a lot of boxes on. It was pretty cool. But continuing to love that out, get everything out of the game that I can, I did not realize how much of an agent for change I could be off the court with the ability to speak on certain things to partner and get to know amazing leaders and game changers throughout society that you can help amplify their stories, provide some of the resources and awareness to issues that are near and near to your heart or being able to speak for people that can't speak for themselves and being very intentional about that.

Never knew the power of that. That's something that the way that I'm trying to move off the court and the entities that I'm setting up to hopefully last longer than the ball of the ball of the bouncing on the court to kind of continue to live that out because there's a lot of good that's come out of me putting the ball in the basket. I've been very appreciative of that. If you pull back from all of it and you go, what are you, you're the best in the world?

One thing, like one thing that everybody cares, do you ever sit there and go to bed night and go, why do they care? It's on. What do you do with that? Because it's a game, but there's a lot of people that are maybe not a lot, but some people are the best in the world, some that nobody, they're the best scientists in the world.

But the thing you do makes people care at a different level. It's a good point. I haven't been able to answer the question of why. My faith has a huge part in answering that perspective for me, because the sense of gratitude that I have every time I walk off the court.

You do stuff that's even beyond your wildest explanations or beyond your wildest expectations of what you do on the court. It's like that moment where you just sit there and I look out and I'm like, wow, it sounds so freakin' corny, but it's literally like, well, I mean, it doubles down into what you do next. What's gratitude too? I mean, this is gratitude.

I get to do this. I get to do this. 100%. To understand, like you said, people care.

A lot. And they care a lot. And you talk about one of my good friends, he mentioned the start of every NBA season, whatever city it's in or professional sports in general. The start of every season, a city has hope.

They have hope, inspiration beyond what's the story of this team that they've ever been before, whether they get to come to games or the Washington City, casually, the hours. There's hope of this could be our year. And maybe that hope takes them into whatever their families, their jobs, their communities, whatever they carry that spirit. Maybe it changes a little something about their experience and their reality.

Who knows, like, to what degree. And he said that I was like, that's crazy, because we get 19,000 people to come to our team. We got millions of millions of people to watch our games. And you're right.

That's why we exist. And I'm living in that. And it's wild to think about. It doesn't mean our days are easy.

The challenges that we go through are fun, but it gave me a big picture of that's why it matters. What's your definition of a successful journey, family, friends, freshly? What would you try to do? It's a definitely, I'd say, because I have the definition, but I don't know what yours is.

I'll tell you what mine is when it probably is the same, but maybe say different. It's the ability to create something that's bigger than yourself in the sense of kind of what I was just talking about, but also to be as present as possible for the people in your life. So we have crazy demands on our schedule. I'd love to be everywhere with my kids and my wife every single part of the day.

That's not possible in terms of creating with my family, with my team, friends, just the ability of something you enjoy, the experience of life. To everybody that defines happiness is different, but you're all kind of in locks up on what that means. And it's not a result of it. I feel like I've loved the ability to win championships and have all the amazing success that we've had on court.

I don't think I'd be any less happy as a person. If that happened with the people that I have in my life, in a way, we'd have been okay. Yeah, but we never lose that perspective because we are blessed just to be able to have people that love you and support you and expect the best out of you, whatever that is, those are people that you want in your life and it's our job to protect that all cause. Yeah, because nobody else will.

Same thing. I say it in a way of the people that know you the best to love you the most. You said that. I like that.

But isn't that because let's do Curries 30 for 30 and you interview your friends, family, they go, well, you don't have a great relationship with them. I don't talk to my dad. You know, I'm talking forever. That's although in the same moment you've got 40 million Twitter followers or Instagram, those aren't, that's not the people that are there.

But I think you know that, but I think that's a hard thing for people to have millions of acquaintances. But when you can't play anymore, not you because you'll be regarded forever, but when it all goes away, like who's there and did you treat those people, do they even want to be there? I'm actually excited about that frame of time frame of life because you also know the sacrifice they've gone into making relationships with that window in the last 14 years. There's a lot of sacrifice that come with that too on the personal side.

But to your point, you have your unit, you can double down those relationships. I say you're making up for a lot of time, but when basketball's not around and whatever comes next in the next chapter of life, I'm really excited about what that looks like. For my immediate family, for people that have been about my size of day one, people that met along the way, we had a value line and there's a two way kind of relationship. They're so excited about what that part of it looks like because you also understand the obsession of being a great basketball player requires a lot of things that you do miss out on along the way.

And that's part of the sacrifice, but it's also for me something I'm really looking forward to down the road to know how much those personal relationships matter and that you can go with for a lifetime. Yeah, because the obsession has to do what you do. You have to be obsessed. Hopefully it's a fun obsession.

But you can't be so obsessed that when it's over, there's nothing left. And so you have to figure that out as somebody like you where you go, I can't let this plant, I can't not water this plant home because I can't let it dry up, because I can't be done and go here's some portion of water and try to drink something. But that's got to be a challenge to kind of figure that out. So I think it's easier, but it's worth a while.

What do you, the family, that's the last question. What do you hope, I mean, I know you care about your wife, your children like that part of your life, like what do you, if you could hope something for the kids to learn from what you've done? Because they're going to hear about, you're a little different. They're going to hear about other people's ideas about you.

But nothing's going to be more powerful than their idea of you. What do you hope that you have given them, just like you said, your mom and dad, what they gave you, what do you hope to show them, stay to them? Just this vision that, and the belief, vision for themselves and inspiration for themselves, but the belief that they're enough, like as who they are, who they've been created and made to be. As you grow older, you realize even your parents don't always have it all the way together.

They're doing everything they can to create that environment for you. And our job as parents is to hopefully instill that in our kids that they are enough, they are perfect the way they are. And we have just this belief that they can, and hopefully they can find something that they're as passionate about as I have been about basketball. And they know that we're going to be there supporting every single step of the way.

And there's no pressures or expectations on, and there being anything other than who they are. Because I am lefirful about this generation, this world, in terms of how we grew up. And you could protect that a little bit easier than today because of the noise and distractions that they have and stuff to keep hold of that. So I just want them to find peace in who they are.

Because that's part of the narratives that we were talking about. Everybody's going to be kind of pointing out who you are and what you're not and how they are. And I know that's going to be tough based on the comparisons and the shadow that I cast on that. So that's the goal, that's the mission, that's what I've longed for them.

Because I know they'll be challenges. But I can already see in the 10, 7, 4 right now, they'll have such a unique personality in their best life and what can be. Hold on to that. Good luck, man.

Thank you. You're welcome. We appreciate it.