Steph Curry discusses what it’ll be like playing an NBA game without fans. Said he still wants music. pic.twitter.com/ZIHDu4tlND
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 11, 2020
Stephen Curry’s fourth career game in Chase Center will be played without fans. After four months of being away from the game following a left hand fracture, two surgeries and rehab, Curry returned last Thursday, before contracting influenza A (the normal flu) and missing the last two games. Curry will return this Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets, in what is set to be the NBA’s first game without fans, following a legal order in San Francisco banning gatherings of 1,000-plus people.
Curry said Wednesday the lead-up to the game would likely be the weirdest part of the experience.
“Probably just the lead up to the first like three minutes of the game because everything about our routines on that kind of game day energy — pulling up to the arena seeing fans outside of Chase walking around with all the Warrior jerseys and even the energy in the building, you can feel it all the way through the locker room, through the tunnel and stuff like that,” Curry said. “So once the game actually starts and you see another team out there, it’ll be weird, but I think we’ll kind of get into that flow fairly easily. But just that lead up, there are gonna be a lot of big eyes out there just kind of observing how different the situation and the atmosphere is trying to play an actual NBA game that counts with no fans in the seats.”
CEO Rick Welts and general manager Bob Myers spoke just before head coach Steve Kerr and Curry, and said they were amenable to player suggestions but were also aware of the seriousness of the situation. Pre- and in-game music has been a topic of discussion. Curry said he would like it to remain.
“For sure. Let’s try and make things as normal as possible,” Curry said. “I remember the game in New York a couple years ago, they did kind of an old school throwback game with no PA announcer but there were fans in the crowd, that was even weird where you didn’t have like defense chants or the instrumentals playing or whatever it was. So it’ll be, I don’t know how they’re gonna do it. At the end of the day, once we start playing, probably won’t think about too much of that.”
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