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Apr 4, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) warms up before the game against the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images

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Apr 4, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) warms up before the game against the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images
Something’s happening in the Bay again — and it has nothing to do with sourdough bread or a tech startup inventing another app to fix a problem nobody has. If you look closely, the streets of Oakland still whisper it. An old restaurant flicks on a long-avoided TV. An elderly lady who once thought “NBA” stood for “Noisy Boys Arguing” is now yelling “SPLASH!” in a No. 30 jersey. Yep. You guessed it. Stephen Curry has struck again. But how exactly? Well, sit tight — because this one goes way beyond just three-pointers and MVPs.
Before Stephen Curry became Stephen Curry, the Warriors were — and we’re being generous here — not exactly the toast of the league. Marc J. Spears recently summed it up best on ‘The OGs’ with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller: “The Warriors were such a downtrodden franchise… they just never won.” When your most celebrated teams played together for two seasons or made it to the second round once, that tells you all you need to know.
At the time, many fans were more emotionally attached to Monta Ellis dropping 30 than they were interested in “winning games.” Spears even admitted, “If they were honest, I bet they would have been more comfortable with them trading [Curry] than Monta at the time.”
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But then Stephen Curry got cooking — literally and figuratively. He didn’t just flip a switch. He rewired the entire Bay Area. How big is the Stephen Curry effect? Imagine this: a restaurant in Oakland was so anti-TV, they practically served kale chips with a side of smug. But on Warriors game nights? Crickets. No customers. Nada.
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Apr 28, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) warms up before game four of the 2025 NBA Playoffs first round against the Houston Rockets at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
So what happened? According to Spears, “They put a TV in there.” Because no one in their right mind wanted to eat pasta while missing Curry dropping 40 from the logo. And we’re not talking about just young fans in jerseys. “He got old ladies loving basketball that didn’t even watch basketball wearing 30 jerseys.” This is not your average fandom — this is Steph converting the unconvertible. Spears continued, “You couldn’t go into a restaurant in the Bay, expect somebody to eat food there on a Warriors night unless you had a TV on.”
And don’t think for a second that Curry’s influence was limited to the gentrified brunch crowd. Spears told another story — the kind that makes your goosebumps get goosebumps. If anything happened to Steph while he was in Oakland? “Dudes from Oakland would come in droves… to save him.” No hesitation. No questions. Just ride-or-die respect. As Spears said, “He is a god there.”
He’s not just the guy who made shooting from 35 feet look normal. He’s the guy who shows up, stays grounded, plays pickup with Mistah F.A.B., and makes everyone — from the barbershop to the boardroom — feel like he’s one of their own.
What’s your perspective on:
Can any other NBA player match the cultural and emotional impact Curry has had on the Bay Area?
Have an interesting take?
Fame is Cool Until It’s Dinner Time
But being Stephen Curry has its drawbacks too. In an interview with Speedy Morman, Curry got real about the not-so-fun parts of fame — like the logistics of just going to dinner. “I’m not out like in the streets ’cause it’s kind of hard to move around at times unless you plan ahead,” he admitted. You’d think the guy could just grab a burger like the rest of us. Nope. “I gotta make like seven phone calls just to make sure you can get where you need to go,” he said. “Like I hate, I do hate that part of it.”
So yeah, while we’re out here trying to find parking, Stephen Curry is trying to figure out how to not cause a citywide traffic jam by ordering sushi. Don’t get it twisted. Stephen Curry isn’t ungrateful. He knows fame has perks, like skipping theme park lines with VIP escort treatment (he admits they might still make you pay), but he also emphasized balance. “I don’t really go anywhere either,” he added. “Like on the road, I’m pretty much a recluse.” And it’s not because he’s a diva. It’s because peace and privacy are luxuries when your face is on every billboard from Beijing to Manila.
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“I don’t ever take that for granted ’cause I’d rather that than the opposite,” Curry said. “But you have to find some balance there for sure. Like I got to be human at some point and find my peace.” While Stephen Curry isn’t chasing numbers like he’s day-trading crypto, he does think about the all-time scoring list. Currently sitting at 24th with 25,386 points, Curry admitted: “I do that math all the time just to get in your head how long do you have to play and to what level to catch the top of that list?”

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Apr 28, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) between plays against the Houston Rockets during the first quarter of game four of the 2025 NBA Playoffs first round at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: C
If he matches last season’s scoring total (1,718 points), he’d pass Hakeem Olajuwon and land at 14th. To crack the top 10? He needs to beat Shaquille O’Neal’s 28,596 points. Translation: about three more high-scoring seasons and fewer “load management” nights than a Tesla battery. But again, scoring isn’t why he plays. “That’s not why I’ll keep going,” Curry said. “It’s more that I want to get to a level where we’re competing and playing for championships.”
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If you’re worried Stephen Curry is thinking about hanging it up soon — relax. He’s “not nowhere close” to retiring, and given the shape he’s in and the way he plays, he’s got some mileage left. All he needs now is a little help from… well, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, Seth Curry, and maybe a Bulls pick from the year half our readers plan to retire.
At the end of the day, Stephen Curry isn’t just the face of the Warriors. He’s the pulse of the Bay. He changed a franchise, elevated a region, made shooting cool, and made restaurants re-think their entire business models.
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From old ladies rocking No. 30 to restaurants installing TVs just to stay open, his reach isn’t just wide — it’s deep. And even as he chases greatness quietly, scoring milestones and championship dreams in his periphery, one thing’s for sure:
Wherever Stephen Curry goes, everything changes.
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"Can any other NBA player match the cultural and emotional impact Curry has had on the Bay Area?"