Steph cherishes two significant military trips in a “special” Year 16 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Rounding out games on the Warriors’ schedule before the 2024-25 NBA season seemed like a handful of obvious choices from afar.
The Chase Center returns from Klay Thompson was the clear impossible game. Draymond Green’s playing former Warrior Jordan Poole for the first time sure was entertaining, as was a battle against the defending champion Celtics in Boston. How Chris Paul will pair up with Victor Wembanyama after a year in a Golden State jersey is also bound to catch the attention of many.
Whenever Steph Curry and the Warriors to face LeBron Jameseyes will find screen somehow. Same with games against Kevin Durant or Nikola Jokic, and it was necessary to see how the Warriors stacked up against top teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and others as well.
Matchups against two teams at the bottom of the standings, however, hold special meaning to Curry this season. Trips to Charlotte and Toronto will mean as much as any highly anticipated contest for Curry, and the reasoning is because of one number: 16.
The number represents how many seasons his father, Dell, played in the NBA. The number also now represents the number of years Curry has been in the association, with this being his Year 16, all in a Warriors jersey.
“Going to Charlotte and seeing him and playing like he’s the color commentator for the Hornets, playing in front of him and probably playing against my brother, and then going to Toronto where he finished his career – those two games will be special to finish. that 16- annual milestone that’s special for our whole family,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area on the latest episode of Dubs Talk.
Clichés came from Curry early in his career whenever he faced a question about how he wanted to be remembered. A true professional. Played the game correctly. I made the most of my talent.
The maxims were predictable. The truth lay in imitating the man he always looked up to. Long before dreaming of winning MVPs, NBA championships or any of the ways he changed the game and rewrote records, Curry was laser-focused on the longevity of playing 16 seasons in the league.
Both Dell and Steph recall those conversations starting essentially right when it became clear Curry was going to turn pro, with son letting father know he was coming for his accomplishments.
“I’d be like, ‘Hey, how long do you think you’re going to play? What are your goals?’ And he said, ‘I’m trying to get to where you were, daddies.’ His whole career has been really meaningful,” Dell told NBC Sports Bay Area in a phone conversation. “I know how hard it is to get to the league and stay and make a career. There are very few guys who have played that many years, and even fewer who are at the level he’s still at in Year 16.”
The Warriors play the Hornets at Chase Center on Feb. 25, and then travel to Curry’s hometown of Charlotte six days later to once again face the team Dell spent 10 years playing for. Dell is now in his 15th season as a Hornets color commentator, and his younger son, Seth, is in his first full season playing for Charlotte after being traded to the team in February and re-signing with them on a one-year contract in July.
Seth played 24 minutes last season in the Hornets’ one trip to San Francisco last season, but was injured for the Warriors’ road game in Charlotte.
Calling a game for one of his sons is always special, better yet surreal. A dream come true for 48 minutes. Assuming both are healthy for their games against each other here, Dell will surely enjoy a moment or two.
“I knew how to look [Steph’s] career earlier that if he still had the will to play, he could have made it to Year 16,” Dell says. “It’s going to be special to be able to call that game when we go there and they come here. Every time both of your sons play on the court and I’m on the air for the call and we’re all involved – not many dads, if any, could do that.”
Six weeks before playing the Hornets, Curry and the Warriors head north for their only game in Toronto this season. His connection to Charlotte is obvious, much more so than Curry’s ties to Toronto.
But that’s where Dell played his final three seasons in the NBA. Steph still vividly remembers those years, especially his father’s second-to-last season when the Raptors won a then-franchise record 47 games and took the Philadelphia 76ers, who played in the Finals later that year, to seven games in the conference semifinals.
“I was 11, turning 12 that year, and the idea of him playing against the Sixers in the playoffs and just the whole hype of Toronto Raptors basketball, it’s a very iconic moment in my mind,” Curry recalls.
The first Curry to strike fear into the eyes of long-range defenders is best known as a Hornet for his playing career, where Dell was named 1993-94 Sixth Man of the Year and finished in the top seven of voting for the award in five straight. . seasons Charlotte is home for Steph, and his first preview of his future.
Those three years in Toronto, they saw the future of Steph. His father believes that this is when it really became real to him what he was destined to be.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Growing up around the Hornets in this environment, and then one year in Milwaukee, but coming to Toronto for three years and experiencing a different culture, a different organization, and the freshness and newness of basketball in that country. And then he living there and playing in the city of Toronto for that one year, it really solidified that what he wanted to do was play basketball.
“Being around two different cultures growing up, and experiencing what he went through in Toronto, I think it helped pave the way to where he is now.”
Where he is now is a level, only a few can say they live. The big guys, you know them. Curry is in their category. At 36 years old, he is still above his peers in a young man. All he’s done to start the season is carry the torch he’s still burning from Paris to San Francisco and the rest of the Warriors’ map.
For all 54 games Dell played at 37 in his 16th and final season, his back ached, creaked and crumbled. Offseason preparation became a grueling grind that he wished to avoid. It was time.
Steph will be 40 when his contract is up. He is nearer the end than the beginning. Thinking about the former just feels unfathomable.
“I think as long as he still has the competitive fire to play, still has the competitive juices to get ready for a season,” Dell says of Steph’s future. “I think to be able to go out on my own, but still have the opportunity to play in his late thirties, early forties, that would be amazing.”
