Speaker 1: I'm Emily Chang and this is the circuit. So it's
Speaker 1: been a busy summer for NBA superstar Stephen Curry.
Speaker 2: Throwing the double the Raptors carry, always on the move,
Speaker 2: throw the double game.
Speaker 1: He finally added Olympic gold to his trophy cabinet, staking
Speaker 1: his claim to basketball's Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 3: The last three minutes of the gold medal game, what
Speaker 3: was happening was just living.
Speaker 2: Up to the moment.
Speaker 4: Those last three minutes, it was just how do you
Speaker 4: get to the finish line playing France in France, And
Speaker 4: you know he understood it was the gold medal game.
Speaker 4: First time experiencing that at that stage, storybook stuff for sure.
Speaker 1: Throughout his career he's made a habit of betting on
Speaker 1: himself and winning big. When he was drafted by the
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors in two thousand and nine, there were
Speaker 1: no signs he'd propelled the club to an NBA dynasty.
Speaker 1: Now he's one of the greatest shooters of all time,
Speaker 1: and sixteen seasons in, he's showing no sign of slowing down.
Speaker 1: Off the court, He's been building thirty inc. His collection
Speaker 1: of businesses that's span partnerships, media, investments, and philanthropy, and
Speaker 1: Curry is betting on himself once again to take his
Speaker 1: standalone Curry Brand that he launched with under armour quote
Speaker 1: to the move and maybe even take on the undisputed
Speaker 1: king of sneakers, Nike, and it's Jordan Brand.
Speaker 4: I think we can have some success at a high
Speaker 4: level when it comes to what is ten twenty years
Speaker 4: looked like that mirrors Jordan Brand, but does it in
Speaker 4: the way that's authentic to work. I stand for what
Speaker 4: Curry Brand wants to stand for, and that's not just
Speaker 4: here in the US, that's internationally too.
Speaker 1: Joining me now, NBA star Steph Curry, We're.
Speaker 3: Going to start on the business. You've been wearing the
Speaker 3: number thirty since college, all under your thirty inc umbrella
Speaker 3: or the sneakers, your production company, VC Fund, the Foundation,
Speaker 3: chase it all with a little bit of bourbon. Was
Speaker 3: there a moment where you decided you wanted to be
Speaker 3: more than a basketball player?
Speaker 4: I think I always had that perspective, you just didn't
Speaker 4: know what opportunities would be there. I think obviously from
Speaker 4: shooting apparel perspective, Like you know, that's always a part
Speaker 4: of a basketball player's expression of what are you rocking,
Speaker 4: what brand are you repping, and how can you build
Speaker 4: that presence off court? So that's been a kind of
Speaker 4: steady through line. But then all the other stuff has
Speaker 4: been curiosities that turned into substantial business opportunities. And I
Speaker 4: think that probably was around the year four of my
Speaker 4: NBA career, where you realize doors that are opening based
Speaker 4: off of you know, what you're doing on the basketball court,
Speaker 4: people that you meet along the way, and just trying
Speaker 4: to find a sound approach to managing it all because
Speaker 4: it matters who you go into business with.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about that. Because you know, a good point
Speaker 3: guard needs to know how to run the offense, when
Speaker 3: to pass, when to shoot. How did being a basketball
Speaker 3: player prepared to run so many different businesses?
Speaker 4: Well, first, going to Davison, it allowed me to have
Speaker 4: a perspective of it wasn't just about basketball, Like there
Speaker 4: was a nice time management, you know, intellectual journey at
Speaker 4: Davidson that kind of gave me a balance as well,
Speaker 4: So it wasn't just one hundred percent I'm just going
Speaker 4: to the gym and hooping. That's the only thing I
Speaker 4: can offer this world. That helped Basketball is not an
Speaker 4: individual sport. It requires five people working in Unison. You
Speaker 4: got to have different roles that everybody buys into, and
Speaker 4: I think maybe a little bit of imagination as well.
Speaker 4: From a point guard position, like you got to have
Speaker 4: a little creativity and a little flair the way I
Speaker 4: play at least, so that's helped off the court too.
Speaker 3: You launched the Curry brand with under Armour now nearly
Speaker 3: four years ago. A former Nike executive said that if
Speaker 3: you had stayed with Nike, your business would have been
Speaker 3: a monster. How do you respond to that?
Speaker 4: There's a reason I'm not there. I've always been an
Speaker 4: underdo It's kind of my mentality. And when I joined
Speaker 4: under omer back in twenty thirteen, had a couple of
Speaker 4: signature athletes, Brandon Jennings was the first, but the basketball
Speaker 4: roster was pretty slim and basically starting the category from scratch.
Speaker 4: So to be a signature athlete for the seven eight
Speaker 4: years that I was there, and to then turning it
Speaker 4: into Curry Brand and the success that we've had, I'm
Speaker 4: super proud of that, to be honest. But the fact
Speaker 4: that I took a chance and wanted to create something
Speaker 4: on my own and sitting where I am right now
Speaker 4: that speaks way more than saying, you know, what could
Speaker 4: have been with Nike is.
Speaker 3: The ambition to be as big as.
Speaker 4: Aara Jordan my version of that in the sense of
Speaker 4: he set the standard and I know everybody's in the
Speaker 4: comparison game of his career on the court and obviously
Speaker 4: what Air Jordan means, you know culturally on court as well.
Speaker 4: But launching it four years ago and what we've learned
Speaker 4: over the last four years doing what we do great
Speaker 4: and understanding this is a merit. It is a true
Speaker 4: labor of love and a journey of a lot of
Speaker 4: ups and downs. Like there's market conditions that affect the business.
Speaker 4: There's wins and losses with the product you put on
Speaker 4: the court. And I think for us, as we build
Speaker 4: out the roster, continue to expand you know what we're
Speaker 4: offering consumers across from me basketball, obviously golf, and eventually
Speaker 4: you know, slowly introducing that athletuer's lifestyle kind of presence
Speaker 4: to Curry brand. I think we can have some success
Speaker 4: at a high level when it comes to what is
Speaker 4: ten twenty years looked like that mirrors Jordan brand, but
Speaker 4: does it in the way that's authentic to work. I
Speaker 4: stand for what Curry Brand wants to stand for. And
Speaker 4: that's not just here in the US, that's internationally too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you get sneaker heads?
Speaker 2: For us?
Speaker 4: We have to focus on what we do great, and
Speaker 4: what I know we do great is from a performance standpoint.
Speaker 4: I truly feel like our shoes or my shoes are
Speaker 4: the best in the bids when it comes to making
Speaker 4: athletes better, putting me in a position to continue to
Speaker 4: play at this high level in year sixteen. And the
Speaker 4: innovation process that comes with that, the design process that
Speaker 4: we worked tirelessly on to get right, to continue to
Speaker 4: elevate an expectation what it you know you're getting with
Speaker 4: Curry Brand product, and also keep perspective like we've been
Speaker 4: doing this for not ten years now, eleven was eleven,
Speaker 4: but with Curry Brand for four years, and it's going
Speaker 4: to continue to take time to develop that expectation.
Speaker 3: They went crazy for you in China, so crazy that
Speaker 3: the government had to cut the trip short.
Speaker 4: What was it like.
Speaker 3: Seeing that kind of Curry mania abroad?
Speaker 4: I think it was shocking to everybody that was on
Speaker 4: the tour. I've done that the Asia tour seven or
Speaker 4: eight times. Coming off the Olympic Gold Medal experience. We
Speaker 4: had an amazing itinerary setup where we're going to experience
Speaker 4: four great cities, have some activations, meet the fans. You know,
Speaker 4: we're doing a Curry brand launch that was specific to
Speaker 4: the Chinese fans and that went well. But you said
Speaker 4: we had to skip a city because there was some
Speaker 4: security concerns. I was on hotel arrest for two days
Speaker 4: because crowd control problems.
Speaker 3: I'm sure Glad drove you crazy.
Speaker 4: It did, but it was also flattering, obviously because the
Speaker 4: demand was crazy and I appreciate that love. So we
Speaker 4: want to be able to obviously do those trips in
Speaker 4: the future and figure out a creative way to still
Speaker 4: have a presence. There great problems to have and stories
Speaker 4: to tell.
Speaker 3: For sure, you've been based in Silicon Valley a long time.
Speaker 3: Tech is a huge part of your fandom. Tech folks
Speaker 3: vcs now fill up the court side seats, mostly at
Speaker 3: the Chase Center. Oakland legend Mista fab said the vibe
Speaker 3: is now all about rich techies. How is being tight
Speaker 3: with Silicon Valley influenced the club for better and for worse?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's interesting because everybody compares like what Oracle was to
Speaker 4: what Chase Center is now. It has changed the demographic
Speaker 4: of you know, who's coming to our games. But it's
Speaker 4: a give and take of continuing to elevate the brand
Speaker 4: of what, you know, being what Warriors basketball is about,
Speaker 4: and obviously championships and all that, but also honoring, you know,
Speaker 4: the history of where we've been. That's something for me
Speaker 4: that's extremely important. Why you know, our foundation is based
Speaker 4: in Oakland, It's where I still have a flag there
Speaker 4: and want to continue to represent the community that supported
Speaker 4: us for so long.
Speaker 2: And you know.
Speaker 4: Business is business is tough, it's there's definitely some hard
Speaker 4: parts about it as things evolve, but for us, you know,
Speaker 4: I always want to make sure I keep that perspective.
Speaker 3: A lot of teams have left the East Bay. The
Speaker 3: Warriors left, which is a little different, the Raiders, the
Speaker 3: Oakland A's Now.
Speaker 2: I have four kids.
Speaker 3: They love basketball, they love baseball. People are gutted. Like
Speaker 3: sports are so important to the economic fabric and cultural
Speaker 3: fabric of a community, How does it feel to you
Speaker 3: to see these teams leaving?
Speaker 2: It absolutely sucks.
Speaker 4: I think you mentioned the economic impact of you know,
Speaker 4: sports franchises is huge and especially for me on that
Speaker 4: like jobs that it creates, it gives a community something
Speaker 4: to look forward to, and for me, like that hope
Speaker 4: of season starting is a real thing, like it's it's
Speaker 4: galvanizes a spirit around a community, and especially a community
Speaker 4: is as rich in culture as Oakland is, from the
Speaker 4: Raiders to the the A's and the Warriors. So it's
Speaker 4: tough to kind of realize we're in that era where
Speaker 4: when I was in two thousand and nine when I
Speaker 4: got drafted and I pulled up to Oakland Coliseum, there
Speaker 4: was something just intoxicating about that.
Speaker 2: You could feel the history there.
Speaker 4: And now when you go back for a concert or something,
Speaker 4: it feels different.
Speaker 2: And so hopefully you know.
Speaker 4: The Valkyries will be practicing in Oakland, which is something
Speaker 4: but the obviously playing the chase, but you wish it
Speaker 4: didn't go down like that because Oakland deserves teams.
Speaker 2: But you know, it's the reality right now.
Speaker 3: I was hoping Joe Lake would by the as me too.
Speaker 3: You did a deal with FTX and did some commercials.
Speaker 3: Tom Brady did it too, lots of celebs did what
Speaker 3: did you learn from that? Obviously that went super sideways?
Speaker 2: Well FTX thing, I shouldn't.
Speaker 4: I mean, it went crazy sideways, and you make decisions
Speaker 4: based on the facts that you have in front of
Speaker 4: you and take some chances. Like obviously nobody wanted to
Speaker 4: see it play out that way, and it's obviously way
Speaker 4: bigger than just me being an endorser for the company
Speaker 4: and some of the names that you mentioned.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's one.
Speaker 4: Of those shots that you took that didn't pan out.
Speaker 4: And obviously the legal process is selling itself, and you know,
Speaker 4: it's unfortunate the way that it went.
Speaker 2: But for me, again, you you.
Speaker 4: Have to acknowledge the losses and obviously understand the learning
Speaker 4: lessons of you know, what you went through when it
Speaker 4: came to Like I said, I made all decisions based
Speaker 4: on the facts that I had in front of me,
Speaker 4: and I think it was a shock to a lot
Speaker 4: of people, not just me, the way that it turned out.
Speaker 4: We take that one in the chain and keep moving.
Speaker 3: You've said you want to own an NBA or a
Speaker 3: w NBA team one day, how will you make your mark?
Speaker 3: Like with your unique perspective, what would you do differently?
Speaker 2: Every fan base is different.
Speaker 4: Hopefully that comes to fruition and whatever team, whatever opportunity
Speaker 4: it is.
Speaker 2: You'll be able to.
Speaker 4: Bring a player and business mindset of the things that
Speaker 4: I saw that impacted, you know, the athletes experience on
Speaker 4: a day to day basis. I think how you authentically
Speaker 4: connect with the community is a big part of any
Speaker 4: successful franchise. It's not just about the wins as losses.
Speaker 4: It's about how you make your fan base feel on
Speaker 4: a day to day basis, and then also being a
Speaker 4: mentor to players to understand, no matter where you are
Speaker 4: in your career, to get the most out of this
Speaker 4: game and to handle it like a professional. And I'm
Speaker 4: going to be very patient with it because you want
Speaker 4: to make sure it's the right situation for me. And
Speaker 4: hopefully again that comes that comes to life, you know,
Speaker 4: when my basketball.
Speaker 2: Career is over with.
Speaker 4: But I think i'd have a very solid respect that
Speaker 4: I could add.
Speaker 2: To an ownership group that would hopefully make a difference.
Speaker 3: Since Michael Jordan sold his stake in the Charlotte Hornets,
Speaker 3: there are no black majority owners in the NBA, despite
Speaker 3: the league being over seventy percent African American. Why, like,
Speaker 3: why are we still here?
Speaker 4: I don't necessarily know the history of who's been knocking
Speaker 4: at the door and hadn't got across the threshold. But
Speaker 4: I do know from Bob Johnson you still own the
Speaker 4: bobcast to pass it off to Michael Jordan, and the
Speaker 4: way that Adam Silver conversations I've had with him understands
Speaker 4: that's a priority for representation in the Board of Governor's
Speaker 4: room and solving that problem. I think it's something that
Speaker 4: will be addressed, something that, to your point, is unacceptable,
Speaker 4: and I feel like the more you talk about it,
Speaker 4: the more pressure you apply. And I think there are
Speaker 4: a lot of different ways now, especially with the evaluations
Speaker 4: of teams going through the roof, that creative ways for
Speaker 4: more participation from the black and brown community.
Speaker 2: At the ownership level.
Speaker 4: It's not like you're going to have a single the
Speaker 4: pool of people that can afford a five plus billion
Speaker 4: dollar price tag for a franchise. It's price pretty slim.
Speaker 4: But you know, those creative ways to get more representation
Speaker 4: in the Board of governors or ownership groups has to
Speaker 4: be addressed. And I think every company, not just an
Speaker 4: NBA or for sports franchises, but every company needs that representation.
Speaker 3: You endorsed Kamala Harris, but Trump won by a landslide
Speaker 3: what's your take on the state of America right now?
Speaker 4: You want to make sure that our country stands for
Speaker 4: one affair election which we all have to accept and
Speaker 4: agree to that piece of transfer of power and allowing
Speaker 4: the country to speak on who they want to represent
Speaker 4: the country. Obviously I was, like you said, a supporter
Speaker 4: of Vice President Kamala Harrison didn't work out that way.
Speaker 4: But like I said, I don't hold it any ill
Speaker 4: will or resentment towards the process. I feel like send
Speaker 4: our best interest to rally around the leadership to have
Speaker 4: a collaborative effort where everything is driven in the spirit
Speaker 4: of representing all people fairly and equitably. And that's on
Speaker 4: President Donald Trump to do that and who he puts
Speaker 4: around him and the accountability towards that leadership.
Speaker 2: That's where the focus is now.
Speaker 4: So you know, these next four years are going to
Speaker 4: be interesting for a lot of different reasons, But I
Speaker 4: maintain hope and positivity optimism that hopefully will be better
Speaker 4: for it.
Speaker 3: You've got olympical You just ex sended your contract a
Speaker 3: few years. How will you know when it's time to
Speaker 3: hang up your basketball shoes?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: How much longer do you want to play?
Speaker 4: I have no idea how I'll know, except I've talked
Speaker 4: to plenty of people who've been in that situation where
Speaker 4: there's two.
Speaker 2: Ways to really go out.
Speaker 4: Either you're forced out, meaning you just can't play at
Speaker 4: this level and you know it.
Speaker 2: You go out on your own terms.
Speaker 4: But I hope to be in a situation where you
Speaker 4: kind of consider how your body feels, what it takes
Speaker 4: to get ready for games, you know, the off season
Speaker 4: training that goes into preparing yourself for an eighty two
Speaker 4: game season. There will be a clear sign that it's
Speaker 4: time to hang it up. I don't want to be
Speaker 4: the one that's limping up and down the court trying.
Speaker 2: To keep up with the young bucks.
Speaker 4: But I don't think I'm anywhere close to that yet,
Speaker 4: So I don't see the time.
Speaker 2: You know, running out ain't something soon.
Speaker 3: You've been called the greatest shooter of all time, You're
Speaker 3: compared to Lebron, you're compared to Jordan. You know you
Speaker 3: were considered the underdog for so long or you felt
Speaker 3: underrated for so long. Do you ever still feel the
Speaker 3: pressure of those labels?
Speaker 2: Performance anxiety is real.
Speaker 4: I've experienced it every day part of doing or playing
Speaker 4: at this level for so long. Is the mental stress
Speaker 4: I'll call it of understanding again, what goes into me
Speaker 4: getting ready for a Sunday game in Oklahoma City. It
Speaker 4: gets a lot, but I still love it. I still
Speaker 4: enjoy it, still love the grind of it. It is
Speaker 4: a different experience than it was ten years ago because
Speaker 4: everything matters in order to get ready for a game.
Speaker 4: But other than that, it's all because of the performance anxiety.
Speaker 4: And I call it the healthy insecurity of at any point, like,
Speaker 4: if I don't live up to my own standards, then
Speaker 4: That'll be a kind of an out of body experience,
Speaker 4: and I don't ever want to experience that. So you
Speaker 4: got to keep trusting the process, if you will, of
Speaker 4: what I do.
Speaker 3: How has the regiment You talked about performance anxiety, But
Speaker 3: how has the regiment or the routine change as you've
Speaker 3: gotten older and more seasoned.
Speaker 4: I think for the last three or four years, I
Speaker 4: still feel like I'm in my problem. The body does
Speaker 4: feel different after games. You got to accept it. And again,
Speaker 4: the routine is you do a little bit less but
Speaker 4: more often so it's not a day that I'm not
Speaker 4: doing something. When it comes to either strength and additioning
Speaker 4: or recovery or some mindfulness to demand something from your body.
Speaker 4: The amount of hours you put in are probably the same,
Speaker 4: but it's the not so glamorous stuff that people don't
Speaker 4: get to see of me in a nce bath or
Speaker 4: doing like a forty five minute stretch routine, or getting
Speaker 4: soft tissue work ors like doing breathing exercises. Like it's
Speaker 4: all over the place, but it's a routine that I
Speaker 4: still enjoy because I know it gets me to a
Speaker 4: place where I can go out and still hoop at
Speaker 4: a high level.
Speaker 3: There's a video of you as a young rookie in
Speaker 3: twenty ten talking about where you'll be in ten years time.
Speaker 3: What would twenty one year old's stuff think of where
Speaker 3: you are today.
Speaker 4: I received be super proud and a lot of it's
Speaker 4: not just because of the accomplishments, which are beyond my
Speaker 4: own imaginations when I was twenty one, but the fact
Speaker 4: that not only have I experienced greatness on the court,
Speaker 4: but things we've talked about off the court. From a
Speaker 4: business perspective, my family just you know, me and I
Speaker 4: ushould have been able to do with our foundation, you know,
Speaker 4: hopefully provide an example for our four kids and what
Speaker 4: it means to leverage your blessings and resources for meaningful
Speaker 4: impact in the community that matters.
Speaker 2: And the fact that now in.
Speaker 4: Year sixteen, which is a big year for me and
Speaker 4: my family, my dad played sixteen years in the NBA,
Speaker 4: and that was always a goal for me to hit
Speaker 4: that milestone.
Speaker 2: And now I'm right in the middle of it.
Speaker 4: And I remember vividly his sixteenth year, which was his
Speaker 4: last year, and playing in Toronto, and I remember a
Speaker 4: lot of those games, and those memories are flooding back,
Speaker 4: and so to have that as something that me and
Speaker 4: him can share now is pretty special. So it all
Speaker 4: is again behind my wildest dreams, is something that I
Speaker 4: think twenty one year old me would be super proud.
Speaker 3: Okay, last question, what else do you want to achieve?
Speaker 3: Where do you see yourself now in ten years time?
Speaker 4: Well, basketball will be done by that. I can pretty
Speaker 4: much say that for sure. I don't think I'll be
Speaker 4: playing anymore.
Speaker 2: Are you sure?
Speaker 3: You're sure?
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure on ten years. But I think between
Speaker 4: all the off court entities and just going deep into
Speaker 4: everything that I have right now, I don't think I
Speaker 4: need more. It just needs to continue to invest in,
Speaker 4: you know, He learned play at what we're doing in Oakland.
Speaker 4: Hopefully Curry brand is through the moon and the business
Speaker 4: that we're doing, you know in domestically internationally who knows
Speaker 4: what team ownership looks like, but just everything that I
Speaker 4: have going on now to kind of be rocked setting
Speaker 4: stone of like stables that when you think of me,
Speaker 4: you know, the underrated brand, underrated golf tour and create
Speaker 4: an opportunity there.
Speaker 2: Like everything that I'm.
Speaker 4: Doing, I love, I'm passionate about, and I want to
Speaker 4: continue to go deeper. So I've dreamed big before and
Speaker 4: out kicked my coverage on that tremendously. So hopefully that
Speaker 4: happens again for the next team.
Speaker 3: You got a few more championship brings or a few
Speaker 3: more championship.
Speaker 4: Trophies, trophy, it will not be because of a lack
Speaker 4: of effort.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try my hardest.
Speaker 1: Thank you absolutely, thanks so much for listening to this
Speaker 1: edition of the Circuit. Please watch the full episode for
Speaker 1: a closer look at how Steph Curry is building his
Speaker 1: empire off the court, and he teaches me how to
Speaker 1: swing a golf club too. I'm Emily Chang. Follow me
Speaker 1: on x and Instagram, at Emily Chang TV, and you
Speaker 1: can watch new episodes of the Circuit on Bloomberg Television,
Speaker 1: streaming on the Bloomberg app or YouTube. I'm your host
Speaker 1: and executive producer. Our showrunner is Lauren Ellis. Our producer
Speaker 1: is Edwina o'teira. Our editor is Alison Casey. Thanks for listening.