Basketball lives in Stephen Curry’s heart, but he has some love for football in his soul.

The day before the Golden State Warriors superstar guard was set to make his return from a quad injury that caused him to miss two weeks, a piece of clothing stopped the perceptive 37-year-old in his tracks.

“I’m gonna be completely honest with you, Nick,” Curry told me after I had posed a question during a news conference. “I did not hear a word you said because of your hat. And I don’t know if you wore that on purpose to (represent) this NFL South battle … I just don’t like it. I’m sorry.”

A Tampa Bay Buccaneers hat had caught Curry’s attention. At the time — on Dec. 11, Curry knew the Bucs were playing the Atlanta Falcons later that night and was hopeful that his childhood team — the Carolina Panthers — would be the beneficiary of a Bucs loss.

“I’m hoping that y’all don’t have a good night tonight,” Curry continued. “So that we can take claim of the NFC South lead and know we got two good games next week and two weeks later. Sorry, I’m in football mode. What was the question?”

Many athletes have a special team they grew up cheering for or they keep up with. But the difference for Curry is that he is the most famous Panthers fan there is — a four-time NBA champ and two-time league MVP backing one of the NFL’s least glitzy franchises. He went from the kid who grew up attending the Panthers’ first-ever game with his family in North Carolina to one of the most famous basketball players ever. The Panthers are his team through thick and thin — a link to his childhood, to family memories.

The Charlotte banner is one both Steph and his younger brother and Warriors teammate Seth carry with honor. They take pride in the fact that they are lifelong Panthers fans. That they’ve been going to the games for almost the entirety of their lives.

.@StephenCurry30 & @ayeshacurry enjoying the @Panthers–@Raiders game 👋 pic.twitter.com/om9iJlIhEp

— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024

In 2018, reports surfaced that Steph was part of a group that was trying to buy the Panthers from former owner Jerry Richardson. While the group that he was part of at the time ultimately wasn’t successful, Steph hasn’t ruled out trying to get an ownership stake again down the line if the opportunity presents itself.

“If it makes sense,” Steph told The Athletic. “It’s not on my life plan right now, but it is something that, with the right opportunity, the right partner, I know Dave Tepper’s running the ship right now. At this point, I guess the long story short, yes, but who knows what’s down the road.”

The Currys will be locked in on Saturday when the Panthers (8-8) take on the Bucs (7-9) again with the division crown — and a playoff berth — within their grasp. Like so many fans of so many other teams, cheering for their hometown team is personal because of what it means to their family.

“Once you leave,” Seth said, “that’s a part of home.”

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Dell Curry was a popular member of the Charlotte Hornets for 10 seasons, even winning Sixth Man of the Year in 1994. When the Panthers came into existence the following year, he bought season tickets so that Steph, Seth and daughter Sydel could start going to games with him and his wife, Sonya.

“I had six (tickets) originally,” said Dell, one of the original PSL-owners as a Panthers season-ticket holder, in a recent phone conversation. “I’d take the whole family, and I’d let the kids alternate and invite a friend to every game.”

Dell, originally from Virginia, grew up a Miami Dolphins fan while many of his friends were fans of the then-Washington Redskins. He said he immediately became a fan of the Panthers once they came to town, and the experience reminded him a lot of when he was a player for the expansion Hornets and the impact they had on the Charlotte area.

For Steph, he saw the early challenges for a new franchise.

“I remember in ’95, they were playing in South Carolina, before the stadium was built in downtown Charlotte,” he said. “I’ve been a lifelong fan ever since.”

Going to Panthers games was a way for Dell to bring his family together during the fall.

“It’s just to create those memories,” Dell said. “The NFL is a day of the week, and I knew getting my kids involved and taking them to games and enjoying that experience on Sundays — I was hoping that it would leave lifelong memories of having that car ride, being able to have some quality time and that whole deal.”

Both Steph and Seth remember those initial drives down to Clemson for the first season and how the bond grew even stronger between team and family as they continued going to the Panthers games in Charlotte. Seth, who, after more than a decade in the NBA, finally joined up with Steph on the Warriors this season, said what he remembers most wasn’t just the games — it was all the moments that surrounded them.

“When you go to the stadium, you can’t really park in the stadium,” Seth said. “So, those 20-minute walks to the stadium, leaving the stadium, walking away, you kind of get those emotions back after some bad losses or the (team’s) few good wins. Just hanging out as a family, walking the streets, feeling the energy.

“It’s not necessarily all the games; it’s more those (moments). When you go to football games, it’s a full afternoon; it’s not like basketball (where) you go for a night, three or four hours. It’s tailgate, pregame; it’s like a full Sunday event. Just those full memories of spending time — mainly bad memories (of losses), but it’s a few good ones.”

The relaying of that memory brought a smile to his father’s face.

“I’m glad he said that,” Dell said. ”Because part of my PSLs (personal seat licenses), I get parking to the games with my tickets, but it was in a parking deck, and we were kind of shielded from the rest of the fans. So, I would buy a parking pass from a buddy of mine who owned a printing company — it was a 10- or 15-minute walk, but we walked by people tailgating. We stopped and got bratwursts. So, I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Hey, let’s create the entire experience other than just parking in the parking deck and getting to the seats really quick. I want them to see how everybody, not only us, but the average fans, enjoy Sunday.’ So, I’m glad he remembers that. I spent a little cash for that experience.”

Steph still remembers his lightning-strike fan moment: the first time he ever saw the Panthers on the field in Clemson in 1995.

“The very first game,” Steph said. “I was six probably at the time. And from there, going to games, we used to sit behind the Panthers’ bench in the top of the lower bowl. Tailgates. The walk into the stadium, just being a fan.”

As Dell made those walks each week to the stadium, he could see his sons’ bond built through the shared devotion to their favorite football team. Whatever back and forth was happening between Steph and Seth, it would stop on their way to the Panthers game.

“No doubt about it,” Dell said. “It’s those few hours where you could be together. Everybody’s wearing kind of the same gear, dressed in that black and blue and teal, the Panthers’ colors. That was a big deal, what we were gonna wear to the games.

“So, yeah, it was an easy day, an easy time. No bickering, no fighting. Everybody knew we were going to have a good time. We were going to cheer for our team and have a great day.”

Each Curry brother had their favorite Panther. For Seth, it was the receiver who helped put the team on the map in the early 2000s and led the franchise to its first Super Bowl appearance in 2005: Steve Smith Sr.

“Steve Smith all day,” Seth said. “A little guy but very good. I liked seeing him get in fights and mix it up on the field. That was my guy. It was funny. I used to run into him at the YMCA. He used to play basketball a lot.”

For Steph, it was the man who helped build the foundation for the team from the beginning. The linebacker who defined the “Keep Pounding” spirit that has been a bedrock of the organization and who tragically died from cancer in 2005: Sam Mills.

“Obviously, knowing his life, and the tragedy of his illness and what he stood for as the first guy that had like a sense of pride representing the city in football,” Steph said. “And the first one in the (Panthers) Ring of Honor. And the inspiration behind — his tagline was, he was the one that came up with ‘Keep Pounding.’ And the drum that we beat and all that stuff, so he was kind of like the original Panther that created a legacy there. So, it meant (a lot) to see how much he cared about the franchise and the city and all that.”

Dell said that it is hard to tell whether Steph or Seth is the biggest fan.

“They played football. They liked football. They understood it,” Dell said. “So, it’s hard for me to tell who’s the most favorite. I knew they all enjoyed the experience because they all knew the schedule, and they all knew what Sunday we were going to Panthers games.”

Dell said that the Panthers remain a big topic of conversation in the family text chain.

“Oh, they stay up with them,” Dell said of his kids. “They’re fully aware. On the text last week, I don’t know which one of them replied, ‘Huge game!’ So, they’re aware of what’s going on, no doubt. Steph’s been here to beat the drum, to keep pounding, and when the Super Bowl was in San Francisco, that was a big week for us. So, they are very up to speed of what’s going on.”

Steph Curry pounds the Panthers “Keep Pounding” drum before Super Bowl 50. (MediaNews Group / Bay Area News via Getty Images)

After starting with six tickets, Dell has dropped down to two now that his children have grown up, moved away and started families of their own. But each time he gets to his seat inside Bank of America Stadium, he sends a picture and a message to his children inside the family text chain.

“I often text all three of my kids a picture from my seats,” Dell said. “Saying, ‘Let’s Go Panthers!’”

It’s a devotion that has been palpable for the Curry family as the Panthers go through the emotional highs and lows of their own playoff push this season. Prior to a Nov. 24 win over the Utah Jazz, Steph interrupted his pregame workout routine in the Warriors’ weight room to watch the Panthers game against the San Francisco 49ers, which took place in nearby Santa Clara. His cheers from behind the curtain after the Panthers made a big play broke through the calmness inside the Warriors’ locker room a few feet away.

Steph beamed in the same locker room a couple weeks later, on Dec. 12, the night after the Bucs blew a late two-touchdown lead to the Falcons and gave the Panthers a chance to take hold of the division. He wore the look of disappointment walking through a tunnel inside Moda Center in Portland a few days later, before a Dec. 14 loss to the Trail Blazers, after the Panthers lost to the New Orleans Saints on a last-second field goal.

While both brothers are loyal fans, Steph, the more outgoing of the pair, is more locked into what’s going on day to day — especially when the Panthers are playing on the same day as a Warriors game and team staffers can see the focus he has on how the Carolina game is unfolding.

“I’m not the one that’s following the newswire every single day,” Steph said. “But I try not to miss a game.”

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The Curry brothers still try to get back to Charlotte to see a game every once in a while, but the NBA schedule makes that tougher during the season. Steph tries to catch the Panthers on the road, as evidenced by his appearance in Las Vegas last year to see a game. He still remembers the first time Jake Delhomme, Smith and the rest of the Panthers made the Super Bowl (XXXVIII) for the first time in 2004, when the brothers were still playing for Charlotte Christian School.

“We had a whole watch party at the crib,” Steph said. “Then, ’16 (Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara) I went, and every run we had, just locked in. Obviously, you want to see them do well. Charlotte is a sports town, and the Hornets haven’t been good in a long time; hopefully they can turn it around, but the Panthers are always fun when they’re relevant.”

The Panthers’ second Super Bowl appearance came in 2016, in the middle of Steph’s second MVP season and Seth’s first full season in the NBA. As the Panthers aim for their seventh division title this season, Steph is in the middle of his 17th season while Seth is in his 12th.

There’s a loyalty that both brothers, now in their mid-30s, take pride in. While the Panthers still haven’t found the championship-level success that Steph has helped the Warriors attain over the last decade and a half, there is belief that it will happen for the Panthers one day.

And like the Panthers, the Curry brothers are walking reminders of the city of Charlotte.

“We didn’t have that culture of a football team when we were younger,” Seth said. “It’s kind of a newer thing in the Carolinas.”

It’s a mantle that Dell and his sons carry with pride.

“Charlotte is a family community town,” Dell said. “And I go to the games. I get recognized. I’m still taking pictures. I think it makes them happy to see that, ‘Hey, we got a celebrity basketball guy, but is a fan of his hometown football team.’ It gives me an opportunity to go to just be a fan, not have to go or commentate and talk about the team. Just go be a fan with the other fans. I go early. I get some Bojangles, get a drink, talk to the fans about who’s in, who’s out, what we’re looking for today … it’s just a fun time, man.”

When asked if the brothers feel like outliers as Panthers fans in the NBA, Seth can’t help but smile. The bragging rights of a team, of a city, pulled Seth back into his fandom — now they’ve given both brothers a point of pride when football inevitably comes up in the regular trash talk within an NBA locker room. The pair can also lean on each other for the first time in their NBA careers — as teammates — not just as brothers who shared a bond growing up.

“It’s rare,” Seth said. “Because we’re a newer franchise, people from Charlotte and North Carolina and South Carolina, they’re Cowboys fans — fans of whatever, not necessarily Panthers fans. Definitely an outlier. It’s rare. We hear from more storied teams and better teams throughout the year so we got to jump on them now when we have a chance to make the playoffs and win the division.”

As Steph waits to see whether an ownership opportunity opens up in the future, Dell knows that if it ever happens it would take his 30-year relationship with the Panthers to a different place.

“I’m a full bona fide fan. It hurts me when they lose. But if he became part of ownership, it would hurt even more if things didn’t go well,” Dell said. “So, it would just take my loyalty and my (fandom) to another level. Another thing, I would assume he’d be at more games than he is now, when he retires.”

Dell smiles when reminded of all the grandchildren his kids have given him — a whole new era of Panthers fans.

The hope for the Curry family is that they’ll be able to watch Young and the Panthers in Super Bowl LX in person at Levi’s Stadium if the Panthers can make a miraculous run. The Warriors actually have an off day that would allow the brothers to be there to make the short car ride if they so desired.

Steph admits that he enjoys the Super Bowl experience at home more than he does attending the actual game — and the all-day time commitment that goes with it — but …

“If my team’s there, I’m gonna be there for sure,” Steph said. “But we’ll see.”

As the Panthers get ready for Saturday’s make-or-break game with the Bucs, Steph believes second-year quarterback Bryce Young can deliver the group to the playoffs. Like any loyal fan, he hangs onto hope.

Back in the news conference room, I needled Steph, saying there was no comparison between Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield and Bryce Young. Steph wasn’t hearing any of it.

“Bryce all day,” he said with a smile.