Steph Curry knows how special being a Hornets fan is. He has big praise for LaMelo Ball
Steph Curry has been coming home to Charlotte with the Golden State Warriors for 12 years now, but it’s quite possible that he’s never been playing better than this.
Curry, whose Warriors are scheduled to play the Hornets Saturday night in Charlotte (COVID protocols permitting), spoke this week about LaMelo Ball, his famous “Pops,” the city of Charlotte and a Bible he still carries from his Charlotte Christian days. And he said the Hornets were a potential playoff team. We’ll get to all that.
But before we do, let’s pause to appreciate how otherworldly the former Davidson star — who will somehow be turning 33 years old in March — has been recently on the court.
In each of his past 10 games headed into Wednesday night’s against Miami, Curry has scored at least 25 points and shot at least 50%. He’s the first guard since Michael Jordan in 1995-96 to have a stretch like that. Curry is averaging 30 points per game and shooting 50% from the field, 43% from 3-point range and 93% from the free-throw line. Curry already has had games of 62 and 57 points this season.
“I do feel like I’m playing arguably some of the best basketball of my career,” Curry said. “And it’s just a matter of maintaining and enjoying the ride.”
In my opinion, two-time NBA MVP Curry right now is not just in the 2020-21 MVP conversation, he is the MVP conversation. LeBron James fans will disagree, and LeBron has been wonderful as always. But I would argue that Curry is doing what he’s doing for Golden State with far less help — LeBron has Anthony Davis on his team, after all, but Curry is missing Klay Thompson.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday that Curry — who missed all but four games last season due to a broken hand — looks stronger than he’s ever been and that his ability to “get out of the clutches of the defense” and score in traffic is “the best I’ve ever seen him.”
“He’s having a brilliant, brilliant season,” Kerr said of Curry.
Curry left no doubt he was looking forward to Saturday’s game when I asked him about coming back to Charlotte.
“It’s always special,” Curry said. “It’s always what I look at first when the schedule comes out. You know my Dad (Dell Curry) is still doing his thing, a color commentator on the (Hornets) broadcast, and I’ve still got family all throughout the 704 and 980 (area codes). So it’s awesome to come back and play and be around familiar sights and sounds and all that. I know this year will be obviously different (with no fans allowed) … But when I’m there, I still get a different vibe and adrenaline boost.”
Steph Curry’s last time in Charlotte
If it seems like Curry hasn’t played in Charlotte much lately, it’s because he hasn’t. Golden State only plays in Charlotte once per season in the Queen City anyway, and Curry has missed two of those past three outings due to injuries. Here’s a strange stat: There is no NBA team that Curry has played against fewer times than Charlotte (16 times total). If he had gotten drafted by the New York Knicks like he originally wanted to be in 2009 — yes, that’s completely true — he would have been here a lot more.
The last two times Curry played in Spectrum Center, which came within a week of each other in February 2019, were also far from ideal from his perspective. Coming home for the NBA All-Star Game in 2019, Curry badly wanted to win the 3-point contest but finished second to Joe Harris. Then in the actual ASG, he shot 6 for 23 (including an uncharacteristic 4-for-17 from three-point range) in a loss.
The next week, Curry returned with the Warriors, but shot only 5 for 18 and scored a modest 16 points in a Golden State win over the Hornets.
On many other nights in Charlotte, though, dating back to all those nights at Davidson, Steph has done Steph in a big way.
Which one was his favorite?
“The night they honored my Dad,” said Curry, remembering the evening in December 2015 when Dell Curry was honored as a Hornets legend. “That was just a big moment for the whole family. They had the halftime ceremony, and my grandma was sitting courtside right by our bench with my mom. And I got to sneak out of the locker room at halftime to be a part of the ceremony and watch. And then I went crazy in the third quarter and gave him a show.”
He’s not kidding.
Curry scored 28 points in the third quarter — not in the game, but in the quarter. Curry pushed the Warriors so far ahead that he didn’t even play in the fourth, but he still scored 40 points that night in 31 minutes on the way to winning his second straight NBA MVP award.
Curry has long been an enormous Carolina Panthers fan, and he has grown increasingly comfortable in using his voice to advocate for social justice issues through the years. He still keeps up with the Hornets, in part because they are his hometown team and in part because his Dad does TV analysis.
“I like to tune in and watch the game to hear my pops on the broadcast and make fun of stuff that he says,” Curry laughed during his Tuesday night press conference. “So it’s nice to see good games at the same time.”
Curry had particular praise for LaMelo Ball (“amazing” and has “surprised a lot of people”), Gordon Hayward (“a big acquisition playing at a really high level”) and Charlotte play-by-play announcer Eric Collins (“He’s always just hyped, and I absolutely love it”). As for the Hornets as a whole, he said they are solidly in the playoff chase and look the best they have since Kemba Walker departed for Boston.
“It’s great for the city to have a competitive team,” Curry said.
Celebrating a win over Michael Jordan
Curry also said he has a special Bible from his Charlotte Christian days in high school that he treasures.
“It’s just a great reminder where I come from,” Curry said, “and the humble beginnings of being Dell Curry’s son in Charlotte. And having a community that has supported me, not because of my Dad, but knowing I was on my own kind of journey. Many people poured into me through those pivotal years in my development.”
A final story: Curry was asked about any Jordan memories, given his recent run and the fact the Hornets are owned by Jordan and that Dell Curry and Jordan’s NBA careers overlapped for many years.
“There was this Bulls-Hornets playoff series (in 1998),” Curry said. “The Hornets got a win on the road. Me and my brother (Steph was 10 at the time and his brother Seth, also a future NBA player, was 7) were watching at home with my Mom (Sonya).
“We had a little TV in our room and she went out in the living room. And when they got it done — when they won one game in the series — we acted like we had won the championship. She ran in that room, busted the door open, and we jumped on the bed screaming. We were going crazy.
“We went to school the next day and that was all everybody was talking about. They didn’t win the series though (Charlotte lost the series 4-1, as Jordan took over the rest of the way). So it’s kind of one of those things. When you’re a Hornets fan, going up against the Bulls, you celebrate all the little things.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 1:05 PM with the headline "Steph Curry knows how special being a Hornets fan is. He has big praise for LaMelo Ball."
