Steph Curry cares for Oakland.
The Warriors superstar, entering season No. 16 with the franchise, spent a decade playing at Oracle Arena just feet away from the Coliseum and long has been involved with the community.
The Athletics being the latest professional team to abandon the town stings deep for Curry. Even though he and Golden State have called Chase Center in San Francisco home since the 2020-21 NBA season, the former East Bay resident is feeling for, well, everyone who received the short end of the stick.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“I think overall, it’s a sad situation because sports franchises -- to borrow a line from a good friend of mine -- it’s a sense of hope and inspiration for a community whenever you start a year,” Curry told reporters Monday at Warriors Media Day. “It’s like a way to galvanize that hope and that unity and that togetherness and having something to look forward to and not just what it does for the economics of that city.”
Steph on the A's leaving Oakland and what it means for the city 😢 pic.twitter.com/gH8cH4JFH0
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) September 30, 2024
The Warriors averaged 18,027 fans during the 2008-09 season before Golden State selected Curry at No. 7 overall in the 2009 NBA Draft. Four NBA championships later, the Warriors left Oakland having averaged a sell-out of 19,596 fans for six consecutive seasons. The arena and stadium’s lot routinely was packed regardless of the home teams’ records -- just remember the A’s Coliseum funeral, which hosted 46,889 in a tear-jerking win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday.
Curry knows Oakland has had its teams’ backs for generations, through good and plenty bad. He also understands that A’s fans -- many of whom are or were Warriors or Raiders fans -- are reeling and that the baseball team’s divorce from the Bay Area affects much more than the game.
Golden State Warriors
“What Oakland has meant to me, to say the least, has been huge -- in the way that I came up in this league, to be able to play in front of that fanbase for those 10 years and knowing the history of the A’s, the Raiders and the Warriors there [Oakland]," Curry said. "It sucks."
“Around what me and Ayesha are trying to do within Oakland, it’s a matter of supporting the community that supported us when we were coming up and making sure we still plant our flag there and have a significant presence there.”
There isn’t any way around it. The A’s capping off the NFL, NBA and MLB’s exodus from Oakland “sucks.”
But Curry still is determined to make a positive impact. Of course, he and his wife recently announced a $25 million pledge to their 2019-born “Eat. Learn. Play.” initiative which aims to help Oakland students in ways its name suggests.
So while some are leaving the Curry Family’s “adopted hometown of Oakland,” as their organization's website calls it, the local couple remain all in.
“It is unfortunate that there aren’t more professional teams representing Oakland; specifically, just because of how much history there is around sports and that fandom and that sense of pride of being from Oakland," Curry said. "So, I don’t know how you work around how tough it is.
“But for me and Ayesha, obviously, we want to make sure we continue our work there -- especially through the school district -- and create opportunities for the next generation to achieve their full potential. But other than that, you have to admit how sad it is for everybody.”
The A’s called Oakland home for 57 years, the Warriors for 47 years and the Raiders for 45. Curry called the town home for 10 years, too, but unlike the teams, he isn’t going anywhere.
The Charlotte native and future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame selection always will have roots in Oakland.