Steph Curry ‘willing to do what it takes’ to buy the Carolina Panthers

When the news broke that Carolina Panthers team owner Jerry Richardson would sell the franchise, with an estimated value of $2.3 billion, after this season, one question rose to the top: Who will buy the team?

And since that initial announcement weeks ago, several names have been thrown around. First there was Diddy, who released a video of himself saying he wanted to become the first minority NFL owner. Then there were rumors that Brian France or Marcus Smith, two high-ranking figures in the NASCAR world, were interested.

But then there were also rumblings that one of Charlotte’s own might be interested in owning the team – someone such as Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry, who grew up in the Queen City and played college basketball at Davidson.

But how serious is Curry, who signed a $201 million deal with the Warriors in June, about buying his hometown team? Very, by the sounds of it.

“Obviously I have a day job, but I’ve got people that are plugged in and are trying to see how to make that happen,” Curry said Monday at a Warriors shootaround, in a video posted on Twitter. “Nothing really to say about it besides that I’m very interested and very willing to do what it takes to make that happen.”

Curry, 29, is a noted Panthers fan and even banged the team’s Keep Pounding drum before Super Bowl 50. He went on to say that he has had conversations with Diddy (whose estimated net worth is $820 million) about the opportunity before them, but all the while reiterated how serious he was about becoming an owner.

“Obviously I’m a fan first and I’ve been a fan since I was, what, 7 when they showed up in Charlotte? So to be able to be a part of something that represents Charlotte so well, in my hometown, I know a lot of the guys that play obviously for the team and what they represent.

“All those things just combined – mainly just being the team that represents Charlotte on the national scale – that’s something I can plug into my hometown vibe, that’s a huge part of it.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2018 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Steph Curry ‘willing to do what it takes’ to buy the Carolina Panthers."