NBA Star Stephen Curry Grapples with Politics: 'You're Not Gonna Please Everybody'

Andre D. Wagner Steph Curry

Stephen Curry is trying to bridge the divide between sports and politics, but he knows he's "not gonna please everybody."

The 34-year-old athlete's graces the October cover of Rolling Stone, which focuses on the athlete's continued efforts to use his influence for change while navigating a tricky public perception as an athlete.

"I have certain beliefs that not everybody vibes with," the Golden State Warriors star told the magazine. "As long as there's equality, in the sense of you having all your protections and your rights as a citizen, that should be the very low bar for everybody to adhere to."

Andre D. Wagner Steph Curry

The 2022 NBA Finals MVP has enjoyed a legendary career during his time in the league, but Curry admitted he has regrets over more controversial moments, including his team's reaction to the Donald Sterling scandal. In 2014, then-LA Clippers owner Sterling was banned from the league after a recording of him making disparaging remarks about Black people went public. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver subsequently banned him and encouraged other team owners to pressure him to sell the Clippers.

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Andre D. Wagner Steph Curry

At the time the recording was released, Curry and the Warriors were in the middle of a playoff series against Sterling's team, and the Bay Area basketball players had intended to boycott the game. Instead, Curry took a backseat while his friend and then-Clipper, Chris Paul, led his frustrated team in discarding their warm-up jerseys at center court.

"One of my biggest regrets is not boycotting the game," Curry told Rolling Stone. "That was a moment to leverage beyond anything we probably could have said."

Andre D. Wagner Steph Curry

Curry has since learned from that choice and now takes a deeper understanding of his platform into consideration when speaking publicly on politics, he said. "You're growing and evolving on the same page as these national, politicized conversations, but it doesn't have to be sides. What I try to do is be real, but also activate conversation that is sometimes uncomfortable."

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"We get attacked as athletes sometimes when you don't want to say something," he added. "It kind of seems like you're soft or like you're equivocating or avoiding whatever the situation is. Honestly, in that moment, yes, I could have been a lot stronger on a point of view, but I wasn't prepared to do that at the time, so I don't regret that."

Curry also spoke to the magazine about the pressure placed on athletes to take political stances publicly. "The current events of the Trump era, I don't wake up and say, 'I wanna go at that conversation.' "

Andre D. Wagner Steph Curry

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However, the Warrior knows that his voice is powerful. "As loud as the threat is from Trump, a similar loudness is needed on the other side."

He continued, "Some of this stuff falls on your doorstep and people want a perspective or comment, and sometimes you cough that up unsolicited. I think I probably need to do the work of looking back at the last 10 or 12 years."