How Steph Curry manages stress: “surrounding yourself with positive, uplifting people”
[All-Star videos/interviews/transcripts]
Here’s how various Warriors spent their All-Star Breaks. These have all been covered on our Discord server, by the way — https://whop.com/letsgowarriors-discord-free for free access with links there to upgrade to VIP if you want to:
Gui Santos visited his fiancée in Hawaii.
Will Richard went back to the University of Florida and caught a Gators basketball game with former teammate Walter Clayton, Jr.
Quinten Post went to Greece with his girlfriend.
Bonus tidbit on Brandin Podziemski and his girlfriend below for paid subscribers.
Draymond Green spent Thursday taping his latest podcast episode with Skip Bayless, then took part in an eBay Live with sports card breakers TheBlez.com. We will have the 45-minute Q&A session on our YouTube channel soon. Green also attended a brunch hosted by Boardroom, as well as a spades tournament hosted by Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union.
One Wardell Stephen Curry spent Thursday promoting his new movie GOAT and his Plezi drink at Pacific Park on Santa Monica Pier, then on Friday hosted a party to thank all the people that have been involved in Unanimous Media:
On Saturday, Curry participated in All-Star practice and had one of the biggest interview scrums imaginable:
At one point, with questions being tossed left and right, he had to stop them all with a, “Woah!” and a, “We’re gonna have to raise our hand,” to which on the HD version of the interview (see below with full transcript), several reporters started raising their hands:
The young NBA PR guy had to shoo everyone away — IG reel pop quiz answer: dude said, “That’s it!” ten times lol. It made me wonder if that scrum was more of a zoo than the GOAT movie itself (dad joke).
My first All-Star Weekend as a member of the media was 2016 in Toronto. They are all a blur by now, but I distinctly remember in Toronto, the scrums before All-Star practice was intensively physical labor s compared to the worst ones of the regular season.
Of course, it was a little more crazy then, as Golden State had three All-Stars, then obviously it was even crazier when we had four after the addition of Kevin Durant — by “crazy”, I just mean how I was pulled in four directions for that 2017 ASW in New Orleans. The scrums were not as bad as the one for Steph in LA this past Saturday. Also, it looks like the configuration of that area at Intuit Dome made things tougher.
For this 2026 edition, maybe the super-scrum was mainly because there were fewer Warriors and Western Conference megastars like LeBron James, who took the day off in exchange for a solo pregame media podium on Sunday. I heard Curry say in an interview that there were like seven new All-Stars this time.
Just looking back to 2016 in Toronto, that’s when I made the realization that it probably was not good for my health to get caught in All-Star Weekend scrums. Over the years we didn’t have as much coverage of those.
But I never had a problem with it because one thing I realized with the large number of international reporters: All-Star and the Finals are their only chances to be in scrums.
The guy that asked Steph to say something about GOAT for fans in Hong Kong? Well, at first, you’re like, “Waste of a question!” But if you think about how, really, the fans literally in Hong Kong probably feel really cool that Steph said something specifically to their fan base, I think that reporter did his job with flying colors.
And so All-Star Weekend media coverage be like that.
I actually think it’s too bad the NBA PR dude had to scuttle Curry along. The interview only went less than nine minutes long. I seem to remember them being around fifteen for him, although I have not researched my own channel to corroborate that — a lot of those old interviews are “lost” somewhere on the LGW YouTube channel, uncategorized.
I love how Steph kept the topics of 2026 high-vibrational. When asked how he manages stress when life gets tough, he said:
Being able to set healthy boundaries around making sure your cup gets filled if you need to get away, breathing techniques, surrounding yourself with positive, uplifting people.
That’s precisely the reason why I don’t spend much time on Twitter/X anymore. It’s been lovely having all the feeeds of the best NBA journalists go straight into our Discord server without any quote tweets or angry reactions. Try the real-time VIP version, it’s great: https://whop.com/letsgowarriors-discord-vip
When asked by Mark Medina of Essentially Sports about tanking, Curry said:
Things evolve, problems arise and everybody wants to shine a spotlight on all the negatives of the league, but let’s focus on the positives of how great the competition is at the top. There still is relevancy, regular season-wise, of the seeding and playoff chase. I know there’s a conversation around how many games we’re playing. That’s probably where I would focus more the attention, but let’s not forget the league is in a great place overall in terms of the attention, the skill level, the global reach, all of that stuff.
Of course, Steph followed up Sunday with plenty of fun behind-the-scenes stuff, including a pregame “tunnel shot” from the NBC TV set, which imo is best viewed when going through the process of the first three misses:
Below are all the behind-the-scenes videos from Thursday to Sunday, as well as the Q&A in question and its transcript.
Below that is the paywall past which is the top-secret inside info on Podziemski’s love life — just kidding, but this stuff is actually very, very private usually and I had to do a little digging to identify the person, who has ties to the WNBA…
00:00 (Inaudible) ...pay attention.
00:00 STEPH CURRY, ALL-STAR PRACTICE: That’s a big deal.
00:01 I’m a sports psychiatrist and I was just wondering how you manage stress when life gets tough.
00:07 Being able to set healthy boundaries around making sure your cup gets filled if you need to get away, breathing techniques, surrounding yourself with positive, uplifting people. Yeah, it’s —
00:25 Hi Curry, I know that you have a movie called GOAT, right? Can you show it to Hong Kong fans, to ask them to watch your movie?
00:31 Yeah, I hope everybody gets to see it in Hong Kong, here in the States, all around the world. I’m excited for people to see the story and I hope that people enjoy it. It’s for the whole family and I think there’s very positive messages in there. It’s a lot of energy, some comedy. I hope everybody gets to see it.
00:52 Steph, a few years ago you went to Manila and you were revered. You were adored there. Any plans of coming back anytime soon maybe?
00:58 I hope so. There’s a big Filipino representation in the Bay Area as well and I hope that I get to go back and see the fans out there, for sure.
01:11 (Inaudible) ...things to try to reduce tanking.
01:14 Say that again?
01:14 The NBA’s trying to do various things to reduce tanking, but what do you think they can do to — ?
01:22 How many teams are tanking right now?
01:24 A third of the league.
01:26 Is it — really? Even the teams that are in the Play-in chase?
01:32 The ones out.
01:34 That’s what, how many — a third of the league, so 10 teams? Is it really that big of a problem? I’m asking. We feel like there’s obviously a lot of competition. It’s something I’m sure, for every year, the NBA wants to address why the Play-in tournament exists. Things evolve, problems arise and everybody wants to shine a spotlight on all the negatives of the league, but let’s focus on the positives of how great the competition is at the top. There still is relevancy, regular season-wise, of the seeding and playoff chase. I know there’s a conversation around how many games we’re playing. That’s probably where I would focus more the attention, but let’s not forget the league is in great, great — in a great place overall in terms of the attention, the skill level, the global reach, all of that stuff. Every year you’ll address the issues. I don’t have those answers.
02:44 Speaking of competition, what can we do to get this great All-Star Game back to competitive play, or is it beyond repair? What do you think?
02:55 Nah, unfortunately I can’t help this year because I’m not playing, but I think the only thing I would think about is shortening the game. That might be the only real suggestion I would have, just because it’s hard to replicate the intensity of a regular season game and nobody’s asking anybody to act like it’s a playoff game, with those type of stakes, but shorter game maybe and I know they’re doing a great job of trying to shorten the day for us as All-Stars. Because we have — we’re so used to a certain game day prep that gets your body ready to go. The timeouts aren’t as long. The breaks in between games aren’t as long. And the league is doing a great job trying to address that, knowing this media part, the fan experience, the made-for-TV part of the game is a big deal. It’s why the, again, that tension on the league is at an all-time high, but that’s the only suggestion I would have, is the 40-minute game maybe, if you’re going back to the two teams format, but in this situation, short and sweet is better. I think that would help the competition.
04:08 Despite the ups and down in the season, Kuminga trade, jimmy goes down, you still have the 8th spot. How do you take this approach after you come back to really make a run in the West and also you have the unicorn hurt again. How do you focus to get back into the track and try to make a run in the playoffs?
04:31 I mean, we’re in a decent spot right now. We’re not where we want to be. It’s not where we set out to be in when we started the year. And like I said, Jimmy, going down was a tough blow because we were really starting to take off, but if we can be healthy, come March and April, hopefully get out of the Play-in battle, secure ourselves into a playoff series and, if not find our way into one. We feel like we’re still a dangerous team and all you want is the opportunity once those seven-game series start, to have a chance and kind of like what we did last year, winning the first game of the Play-in, beating Houston, I go down with a unfortunate injury and bad timing. Like, we were right there, so if we can replicate that, I think that’s a success for us right now. Whoa! Who said what?
05:29 Right over here to your right.
05:31 Hold on. We gonna have to raise our hand. Go ahead.
05:36 Over here to your right. You mentioned positivity and focusing on that you’re no stranger to playing during February. Talk about what it means to play during Black History Month at All-Star.
05:45 Oh, it’s a big deal. I mean, the history of this league is intertwined with the representation, celebrating the pioneers of the game and the fact that we’re all able to call this a job and be blessed with these platforms because we’re standing on the shoulders of so many leaders throughout civil rights history and black history when it comes to changing America. So I’m glad it’s talked about more on a daily basis, not just Black History Month, but how we get to use our voice and our platform to speak on things that matter.
06:30 Seeing the popularity that — oh, sorry — seeing the popularity that the league has had globally, what do you guys, the players, think about the potential idea of playing in South America? I came from Santiago, Chile, so I’m really curious about that.
06:45 I think those are amazing experiences culturally. A lot of guys in this league haven’t really traveled the world like that until you get to the league and so —
06:55 Have you ever visited South America?
06:56 I’ve been to Brazil twice, but I’d love to travel around even more, for sure.
07:07 Is there anything that you feel — are you open for business now or you’re waiting until after the season to kind of find the new apparel company?
07:13 I’m enjoying the free agency, for sure, right now. I think we’re active in conversations and all that and trying to figure out what the right home and right partner is, but yeah, whenever that becomes a reality, I know people — I’ll let people know, for sure.
07:32 Is there anything that you feel that you need to accomplish at this point in your career?
07:37 We’re all — I’m still chasing championships. I think that’s, that is the motivation. I feel like it’s realistic, even though you’re not probably gonna be on a team that is the perennial favorite going into any year, but we have, I think, a legit opportunity to make a run and that’s what keeps me going. That’s why I work so hard, year in, year out, the off-seasons are a grind, to get ready for the marathon of a regular season. And I still have fun. I still enjoy it. I still have a love for the game, but championships are really it.
08:15 Alright, folks. That’s it, guys. That’s it. That’s it. That’s all he has time for. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. Let’s go. Thank you.
08:22 Yes, thank you.
08:26 Thank you, Steph.
08:26 Giannis has some great gummy bears, in case anybody was wondering.
