‘Hope I Can Come to India Someday’, Stephen Curry Tells The Quint

Stephen Curry was speaking on the sidelines of the NBA All-Star game in Los Angeles.

Stephen Curry talked about wanting to visit India sometime in the near future.

(Photo: The Quint)

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

First things first. Twenty minutes around Stephen Curry and it is easy to understand why he has become one of NBA’s most loved players.

The stage is the NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles and Curry made his first appearance in front of massive media contingent from across the world at the media session at the LACC on the morning of Saturday, 17 February.

Now, unlike most press conferences where one player comes out to handle the media’s queries, the All-Star Weekend, understandably, has all the stars from each team come out to speak to the media, all at once. Each player has a pre-allocated podium so we know where we need to stand in wait. Curry was stand number 4.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) celebrates a basket during an earlier game.(Photo: Reuters)

He was expected to arrive at 12:30 pm, but even one hour earlier, at least a dozen camerapersons and even more reporters had already gathered around the spot, fixing camera angles and checking for audio signals. Yours truly included. It was a game of ‘last man(woman) standing’ almost with the hour-long wait seeing some people leave to basically answer nature’s call or in the case of Ellen Degeneres’ 6-strong media team, for an an exclusive interview with another NBA star.

Watching Ellen’s team clear out though cleared the way for me to find my way right next to the podium. Prime spot. Think Golf Links. I got to keep my mic on the podium next to him, I got a clear shot of him speaking and I got to ask him the one question every Curry fan in India wants an answer to.

When will you come to India?

Now you need to understand, with over a thousand journalists gathered at the arena, a player gets asked this question a lot of times. Only the journalist will instead be from Mexico or China or Argentina.

I, however, had legit grounds for asking him the Indian version of this question (sort of). A few years back, Curry was in fact slated to travel to India along with his family but had to eventually cancel. Reschedule. Only, we haven’t seen the beautiful Curry entourage in India yet.

Moving on though, I managed to ask him about his cancelled trip and his plans in the near future. His answer was more than just the cursory, ‘someday soon’.

I would love to visit India. I think the culture there, the fanbase for the NBA and for basketball, I heard is electric. Hopefully one day I can get there and get immersed in the culture and visit all my fans there for sure.

Stephen Curry

There was also the important topic of the big Sunday fixture to be discussed and Curry seemed optimistic about his team’s chances against the LeBron James + Kevin Durant team.

I enjoy the honor and opportunity to play with 23 of the best players in the NBA. It is a pretty special opportunity. I think it was surreal the first time I got to be an All-Star in 2014 in New Orleans. I don’t think that feeling has changed much.

Stephen Curry

This time in the All-Star game the format has moved away from the Eastern Conference vs Western Conference roster. It was Curry and Lebron who were named captains and got to pick their squads based on a pool of players voted on by the fans.

The new format adds a little different vibe around the All-Star game. It should be a little more competitive and intense on the court, tomorrow. There is a lot at stake from our pride standpoint. It is not just the Western Conference vs Eastern Conference anymore. It is Team Steph vs Team Lebron. We are obviously going to win.

Stephen Curry

Also, did I mention he turned up for his media interaction 5 minutes before time? Did I?

In India, you catch all the NBA action Live and Exclusive on SONY SIX HD, SONY SIX SD through the weekend.