Steph Curry is pure Charlotte, but who would give up his current gig?

I got Stephen Curry alone for five minutes Saturday night and posed the following:

What was harder? Losing that first game this season to the Milwaukee Bucks or watching his Carolina Panthers lose to the Atlanta Falcons?

Curry, who isn’t just from Charlotte, he’s of Charlotte, said the Panthers’ loss was tougher because no one realistically thought the Golden State Warriors could go 82-0. It wasn’t out of the question for the Panthers to enter the playoffs 16-0.

Charlotte will always be in Curry’s heart. But handy a slow-day topic as this is on Charlotte sports-talk radio, I can’t imagine why he would consider leaving the Warriors for the Charlotte Hornets anytime in the foreseeable future.

It defies common sense. If Curry, the former Davidson star, could have plotted out the last year of his life, I’m not sure his imagination would have lived up to the reality.

The Warriors won the NBA championship. Curry was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. The team won its 34th consecutive regular-season home game Saturday against the Denver Nuggets.

That’s just the professional side. Personally, he and wife Ayesha, are settling into a beautiful home in Walnut Creek, north of Oakland and northeast of San Francisco. It’s on a large, wooded lot, the sort of place you would love to raise two daughters.

The Currys started renovating that homestead last spring during, of all things, the playoff run. They fully moved in over the Christmas holiday, with Steph packing many of the boxes rather than leaving the task to hired hands.

If you know the Curry family, that makes sense: Just because you have wealth doesn’t mean you stop handling your business.

“I told my family, ‘We thrive on chaos,’ ” said Curry, who might not play against the Hornets on Monday night because of a deep shin bruise. “We’re in the middle of the renovations at my house during the playoffs. Everybody’s bunked-up. A little mini-frig because the refrigerator was all packed up. It’s kind of funny we picked that time to do it.

“Obviously we made it through. That thrive-in-chaos thing always keeps going. We make it fun.”

I made sure to be out on the court Saturday to watch Curry’s pre-game warm-up. It’s as intricate as anything I’ve seen in 27 years covering the NBA.

It starts with simultaneously dribbling two balls a variety of ways. Then Curry starts practicing shots most players wouldn’t attempt. He’ll launch a floater from behind his head at such a severe angle it should never go in. It does. He practices bank shots with side spin that subtly pushes the ball to the net without getting near the rim.

He takes 3s from all over the court, and by all over the court, I mean shots just outside the arc and others 40 feet from the basket. Then Warriors assistant coach Bruce Fraser plays token defense, making Curry dribble behind his back continuously before a series of step-back jump shots. They all seem to fall through the net without needing a lucky roll.

Finally, Curry heads to the foul line. He has to make five consecutive free throws without ever touching the rim to leave the court. It’s not much of a challenge at this point.

It’s 25 minutes since Curry entered the court, and he starts back toward the corridor to the Warriors home locker room. The 100 or so people who formed a semi-circle to watch the warmup swarm him with pictures, jerseys, hats and score sheets – anything with the number 30 and Curry’s name. Sharpies everywhere. He signs whatever he can within reason before slipping on to his pre-game regimen.

The Warriors have sold out 150 consecutive home games, and that streak started long before this was a championship team. There are more than 19,000 people who paid a $100 deposit just to be on the waiting list for season tickets.

This franchise plans to replace Oracle Arena with a palace of sorts on San Francisco’s waterfront. The minute Curry is eligible for a new contract the Warriors will offer him the maximum – more than any other team can – under the rules. He can win big for a long time with two other All Star-quality players in Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Now I ask you: Would you bargain all that away to go home?

If you answered yes, think again. I strongly doubt it.

This story was originally published January 3, 2016 at 12:21 PM with the headline "Steph Curry is pure Charlotte, but who would give up his current gig?."