Q&A: Stephen Curry

Courtesy of Tim Kawakami

-Q: Can you talk about what all this day, award and having your friends and family here mean to you?

-CURRY: This is very humbling for sure. You don’t really dream of winning an award like this. It’s more so about the journey with the platform as it continues to grow, to be able to use it in the right way.

I’ve been blessed with a great team behind me to make ideas that I have come to life and also bring new experiences that hopefully I can have some kind impact on–on some kids’ lives and different groups of people.

It’s humbling. It’s also encouragement to keep doing it. Whether you’re acknowledged for it or not, a lot of lives have been impacted.

-Q: What kind of conversations have you had with Steve Kerr? And how do you feel about having him as your new coach?

-CURRY: We’ve talked three or four times on the phone. Looking forward to getting face-to-face once his gig’s done with TNT. But a lot of it’s kind of just outlook on kind of the locker room as it is now and what his vision is for us next year going into the season.

Not much detail’s been talked about. But I think in the coming weeks we’re going to sit down, I’m sure like he will with most of the other guys on the team, just talk about expectations and what his style of coaching will be.

And we’ll be able to adjust and hopefully be good to go.

-Q: Is Kerr going to have to win you guys over?

-CURRY: That’s with every new coach. I don’t think it’ll be advertised in the locker room, like ‘How long will it take for him to win over the locker room over?’

Guys are ready to play and be professional about it. And come prepared for training camp.

It’s just like with any new coach, you’ve got to feel it out and see. It’ll probably be a little different and we’ll just kind of adjust.

But at the end of the day, all of the guys in the locker room are trying to win. I know Steve Kerr has that mentality and that mission as well. So those two things are aligned, and we’ll be fine.

-Q: Have you talked with your teammates and do you think they’re all on board with this?

-CURRY: I’ve talked with most of them. I think kind of the feeling was how quick things happened after the season was kind of a shock. And it took some time to kind of respond and react.

Obviously they made a semi-quick hire. I think as the summer goes on, we kind of remove ourselves from last year and look forward to next year, it’ll be fine.

It’s just tough. I mean, there’s no sugarcoating it. It was a weird expedited situation that we didn’t see coming. And guys are human–got to be able to adjust to it and have some time to respond.

That’s kind of what happened. Like I said, I think we’ll be fine once we have a clear picture of what’s going on next year.

-Q: Have you talked with Joe Lacob recently?

-CURRY: Not really. I talked to him, saw him in the office during the exit meetings. But most of the conversations are with Bob (Myers), just getting my opinion on certain things and that kind of deal. That’s about it.

-Q: Personally how are you handling the transition considering how close you were to Mark Jackson?

-CURRY: It’s tough. I mean, that relationship will never stop. He did a lot for me as a player and as a person.

It was emotional for sure, seeing that come to an end. For me, it was who he was as a person, and our relationship and communication, but also just, he was a sign of stability for me.

I had three coaches in three years and he embodies what I know as good around here with the Warriors, winning and that kind of feel. It was a lot different my first years. Not to say… I loved Coach Smart and Coach Nelson… but he embodied winning for me, and it’s tough to see that end.

Obviously will be able to focus on next year and grow under Coach Kerr hopefully even more but it was tough to kind of react to that, especially so soon after Game 7, fighting and fighting and fighting and trying to win.

You just kind of take it a day at a time and at the end of the day you come to training camp, talk with Coach Kerr all summer, figure out how we can make this team better, because that’s going to be the mission.

-Q: Are you worried that things could get worse now that he’s gone?

-CURRY: It’s just a new look and a different chapter, that’s all it is.

-Q: Have you talked with Mark Jackson? How is he doing?

-CURRY: He always had that mentality that whatever was going to go down, he’d be fine, because he loved coaching and loved us as players. But he has bigger things going on–family life, obviously professionally in his career he’s made that jump to going in front of the camera, commentating.

So I know he enjoys that. He talked about that all the time and it’s nice to see him spring right back into it like he never missed a beat.

I know he’ll be fine figuring out what his long-term goals are and what he wants to do.

-Q: You’ve mentioned many times over the last year that you want to be with this team over the long-term and you were counting down the days until you could sign your next extension here. Do you still feel that way about this organization? Do you still want to be here the rest of your career?

-CURRY: One thing I can say about this organization, they want to win. And they’re trying to figure out… each decision I think is geared towards winning. That’s something that flies well with a lot of players, they’re trying to put us in the best position to win.

Obviously I had a certain opinion of Coach Jackson that they made decision otherwise, and I heard the reasons. I won’t dwell on it, but as long as we’re focused on winning and taking advantage of the roster we have and the opportunity we have with this window to try to continue to get better, just looking forward to next year and making that happen.

I haven’t lost faith in that at all. As much as I supported Coach Jackson and loved everything about it when it came to playing for him, I think they’re about winning.

-Q: What was special about the environment under Mark Jackson?

-CURRY: Stability’s a huge word. And the cohesiveness in that locker room, the family-like atmosphere.

Obviously there was drama going on in a couple instances this past season. But I don’t think that takes away from the entire atmosphere that Coach Jackson built from Day 1.

The way that we played is reminiscent of that and the development that we’ve had in the past three years to becoming a relevant team obviously has a lot to do with ownership and personnel moves. But obviously Coach Jackson had a huge hand in that as well.

They”ll never take that away from him because that was a lot of his vision for what he wanted to do as a coach.

-Q: Klay Thompson’s name is thrown out there and a possible trade chip. How important do you think it would be to keep Klay here?

-CURRY: It’s huge. I love playing with him; he makes me better, I try to make him better.

How much better he’s gotten since Day 1, it’s kind of scary. Such a great two-way player. And hasn’t anywhere close to hit his ceiling.

So definitely want him to continue to be my backcourt mate and keep pushing, keep growing together, and not to waste the nickname.