LIKE SO MANY parents at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Stephen Curry found himself trying, and mostly flopping, at a strange new role.
"I was basically the substitute second grade teacher for my oldest daughter," Curry said of Riley.
He loved spending all that time with her after missing so many nights leading the Golden State Warriors to five straight NBA Finals appearances and three titles. But Riley was not as enthused.
"I was getting compared to her friends that she couldn't see on a daily basis," Curry said. "So I wasn't, I guess, a good hang."
And yet Curry looks back fondly on that time.
"I had nine months to recharge and rejuvenate the battery," he said. "So now I'm in pretty good shape to just go play and enjoy what I get to do."
That energy has been both infectious and important in a season and a sport in which the regular season has seemingly mattered less and less. With stars sitting out long stretches with injuries or just for load management, and constant COVID-19 testing and quarantines, Curry has mattered more and more.
The Warriors (32-32) might only be fighting a spot in the play-in tournament, but they've played in half of the NBA's 10 most-watched games this season. Ratings from games on their local television partner, NBC Sports Bay Area, are up 103% from last season (when Curry missed all but five games due to injury).
His most recent scoring streak has been downright binge worthy. From March 29 to April 19, Curry scored over 30 points in 11 straight games. The Warriors-Celtics game on April 17 drew a whopping 2.5 million viewers on ABC -- a figure that would look good even before the pandemic began, affecting viewing habits.
"I'm very aware," Curry said when asked about the responsibilities of being one of the faces of the NBA. "I try to be."
It's why he does interviews on an off day in Minnesota, despite the Warriors' blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks the night before.
And why coach Steve Kerr spots him signing autographs outside the team's hotel when they arrived in Houston late Thursday night.
"It's the middle of the night, we've just landed from Minneapolis, and there's 10 or 15 people outside the hotel," Kerr recalled. "He goes over there and signs a few. It's just who he is."
A few nights earlier, Kerr had talked about the lack of connection everyone in the NBA has felt this season, playing amid the pandemic in largely empty arenas with little to no contact with friends or family while traversing the country on a condensed schedule.
It gets lonely.
But when you go to work every day with someone like Curry, it's a little easier.
"It's just his approach, it's the joy that he brings to every day, regardless of circumstances," Kerr said. "He loves practice, he loves the work, he loves the routine. And that just sets a tone.
"If the leaders are setting a tone like that, and there's a lot of joy in the room, then even when you're going through a season like this, like we are, it's still fun."
They were both drained by the five straight Finals runs. Mentally, physically, even spiritually, that takes a toll.
"You could feel the exhaustion," he said. "But you're still playing in the Finals and that's all I want to get back to now."
That feels like a long ways away at the moment. All-Star guard Klay Thompson hasn't played in two years because of injury. The Warriors' supporting cast is young and unproven.
"It's not easy. It's not like there's this magic trade that we're going to make that's going to make us contenders again," Kerr said. "The team we've had over the last seven years, that was one of the great rosters in the history of the NBA."
So how is Curry playing with the same kind of joy on a team fighting just to make the playoffs?
"I'm blessed to say I still love to play basketball," he said.
Even on a team that's 1-7 in games he doesn't play this season -- essentially a 10-72 team over a normal year -- and struggling to maintain its grip on the 10th seed?
"Yeah," he said. "If you're around this game long enough, you see a bit of everything. You have to find a sense of purpose in whatever that challenge is."
Curry has always found inspiration in the pursuit of excellence. In those who are great at what they do but still constantly look for ways to improve.
AT THE PEAK of the Warriors' dynasty, following their 2018 title, he did a documentary with filmmaker Gotham Chopra, "Steph vs. The Game," in which he talked about his admiration for golfer Tiger Woods.
"I've never seen a killer instinct like that," Curry said in the film. "He changed his swing even though he won like six straight tournaments, three majors in four years, does the Tiger Slam and then changes again his swing because he feels like he could get better, more efficient. That was an inspiration in terms of never being satisfied."
They've never met in person, Curry said -- only phone calls. But Woods remains one of his biggest inspirations.
"Whenever you count somebody out like him, he always seems to find a way to prove you wrong or to surprise you -- but it's not a surprise to him," Curry said. "Him winning the Masters two years ago, that in and of itself was the wildest, the most amazing story ever."
On Feb. 23, Woods suffered multiple leg fractures in a car accident, casting doubt on his ability to play golf again. Curry says he can relate.
"He has another mountain to climb where people are probably counting him out and disregarding his legit chances of coming back and being competitive," Curry said. "What we're going through is not as dramatic as what he's been through. But there's definitely things to pull from. When you're at the top and get knocked down a little bit, people really kind of count you out. For me, they poke at the legacy, or poke at my ability to be who I think I am."
"It's the middle of the night, we've just landed from Minneapolis, and there's 10 or 15 people outside the hotel. He goes over there and signs a few. It's just who he is." Steve Kerr on Steph Curry's love for everything basketball
That last part -- who I think I am -- is central to understanding Curry.
He has never thought of himself as an underdog or undersized. He has never been surprised by the success he or the Warriors have had.
"I know how hard I work," he said. "And I know who is around me."
Curry is making a late push for this season's MVP award with his torrid spring; according to ESPN Stats & Information, Curry is the first player in NBA history to average at least 35 points a game on 50-40-90 shooting for one full month. But he acknowledges it'll be hard to vault ahead of leading contenders like Denver's Nikola Jokic, Philadelphia's Joel Embiid and Phoenix's Chris Paul.
"Yeah, I do [feel deserving of the MVP]," he said. "But even if you don't win it, being in the conversation, top five; those type of acknowledgements show what you're about, no matter what the situation is, year to year.
"That, in and of itself, is the reward, because we all know how hard it is to actually have everything go right for a season that you actually win it."
The challenge for Curry, and the rest of the Warriors who still remember how it was when they were winning titles and dominating the league just a few years ago, is to find purpose and joy in trying to climb back up there.
"You can lose your spirit if you only focus on what's happening right now," he said. "We have a certain style and expectation around here that when we don't meet it, it does become frustrating. We're learning on the fly about how to rebuild.
"I know we have a lot left in the tank and we want to finish the season strong. But there's nothing smooth about the climb back to the top."
Losing, especially in a joyless, disconnected season like this one, can wear down anyone over time.
So can the notion that Curry might be wasting one of his last MVP-caliber seasons on a 10th-place team.
"He's so damn good we need to maximize him this stretch," Kerr said. "You have to enjoy what he's doing as a fan, and appreciate what he's doing organizationally -- then do everything we can to build the best team around him. It's not like that's what we owe him, it's more like that's what we need to do."
WHEN THE WORLD first met Riley Curry, she was a precocious 2-year-old stealing the show during her father's postseason news conferences. She was cute and endearing, just like high-flying Warriors. And it seemed like the run would go on for a long time.
But dynasties, like children, age in a hurry. Riley is an 8-year-old now, choosing her friends over her dad. And Curry has big decisions to make about his future with the Warriors after this season. He has the option to extend his contract this offseason, or he can become a free agent after the 2021-22 season.
Every time the subject comes up, he reiterates that playing his whole career with the Warriors "is a priority."
"There's a heightened sense of urgency, as it should be, when you're a championship team that's trying to hold it together," Curry said. "Obviously, if you watched 'The Last Dance,' there's a lot of things in play in this league. Nothing is predictable. But that's what makes it fun.
"You have to have a perspective that you're good enough, capable enough to figure it out."
Kerr, of course, was a key part of that Chicago Bulls 1997-98 season that coach Phil Jackson dubbed "The Last Dance." It was a team that had won before with the core of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, but a retooled supporting cast that hadn't proved itself.
Historically, Kerr has compared Curry to another franchise cornerstone with whom he played: San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan.
"The combination of humility and humor, and then total confidence on the floor," Kerr said, explaining the similarities between Curry and Duncan. "It's such an amazing combination. A lot of people who have the humor and the humility, usually guys like that are the ones who are at the end of the bench.
"So when you have a superstar that has that type of combination, it's so rare and incredibly powerful."
But this season, Kerr is reminded of something he used to feel as Jordan's teammate.
"He's reminding me of MJ in that you just get so used to the brilliance and the excellence, it sort of blends in with everything else," Kerr said. "It just becomes routine. It's insane to say that because what you're watching is otherworldly, and yet you sort of begin to expect it. That's probably the purest sign of greatness."