Team USA star Steph Curry has backed Kamala Harris’ Presidential bid as the Golden State Warriors icon insisted gold at the Paris Olympics can “unify” the nation.
Curry, who is making his Olympic debut, is back in the national team for the first time in a decade. The four-time NBA champion believes a successful U.S. Olympic campaign can ultimately unite his divided nation ahead of a controversial and dramatic presidential election.
On Thursday, Curry threw his support behind Harris and her attempt to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election. The 36-year-old noted the intriguing socio-political climate that serves as a backdrop for this summer’s Games.
“It’s a very interesting time for our country, for sure,” Curry told reporters. “The fact that President Biden gave the endorsement, Vice-President Harris is primed to bring her energy to this campaign and, hopefully, if she’s on the ticket, winning the election. It’s a big deal, to say the least.”
Earlier this month, Harris visited Curry and the USA Basketball roster at their training camp in Las Vegas. She enjoys a strong relationship with the Warriors superstar, given their ties to San Francisco and Oakland as well as their aligned political views, which is why Curry spoke warmly about the former California senator, who is a Warriors fan.
He added: “She represents the Bay Area. She’s been a big supporter of us, so I want to give that energy back to her. We’re representing our country here, and this is a very monumental next couple of months for the direction where we’re headed. Hopefully, this is a great way to do our part to continue unifying our country with how sports brings a lot of people together. For her, in this moment, knowing what’s ahead, it’s all about positive energy and optimism, knowing how divided our country is right now. [I’m] just excited for the journey ahead for her.”
Curry is yet to taste defeat when representing the United States; USA Basketball is 18-0 with Curry on the roster. But he is finally set to make his Olympic debut on Sunday, when he, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and co. take on Nikola Jokic’s Serbia.
Team USA has an embarrassment of riches to call upon, with the likes of Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, and Anthony Davis among the star-studded roster. Team USA enjoyed a perfect 5-0 pre-Games run before travelling to Paris where they will also face South Sudan and Puerto Rico in the groups at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium.
Despite a tight win over South Sudan leading to fans and media expressing concern, Curry exuded confidence Team USA can deal with the pressure and deliver gold. He said: “Once the game starts, it’s just basketball. You kind of get lost in whatever the atmosphere of that particular game is and whatever the challenge is to win that particular game.
“The only thing you think about is just it’s not 82 games, and there’s no pacing yourself. You can’t go 0-2 and be like, ‘Oh, we’re good, we’ll learn the lessons and figure it out from there.’ It’s a sprint. It’s a very March Madness kind of style. Just to be able to lock into every practice – not that we don’t do that in the league – but every practice means something.
“It was great that we went 5-0 [on the exhibition tour] and won a lot of different ways and tried to figure it out on the fly. Everything’s condensed and that’s the really only pressure, including the exhibitions. It’s only an 11-game journey and you’ve got to be able to adapt quickly. You’ve got to be able to bring your egos of who we are as individual players, but also let them go knowing it doesn’t matter who’s the man’s score on that particular night.
“When you’re on the floor, you’re asked to do a certain thing, do it to the best of your ability, play with energy. As Team USA, if we do that, usually good things happen.”