Warriors superstar Steph Curry has a special connection with Oakland. He's very open about his affinity for the city and its people, and that bond extends to Oracle Arena.
But that building no longer is Golden State's home. Not only is the three-time NBA champion adjusting to life at Chase Center, but he and his family have a new home in Atherton.
“Driving up, sometimes you can see across the Bay. I blow a little kiss and give a little shout-out,” Curry recently told Marc Spears of The Undefeated.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The two-time NBA MVP now has a whole new routine, and it's understandable that he misses a lot about his old process.
"It takes a lot to replace the emotional connection to a building and the faces," Curry explained to Spears. "I know there are a lot of men and women who used to work the building at Oracle that came over. But there has been a lot of change, including my security guys.
“The way we get into this building, we don’t see a lot of people. It’s a bunker situation. It’s quiet. There was a scene walking from the parking lot to the locker room [at Oracle] where there was a buzz. I liked it because that’s how it was, and I had fun with it.”
It certainly didn't help the narrative surrounding Chase Center that the Warriors were crushed by the Clippers in the arena's inaugural NBA regular-season game Thursday night.
Golden State Warriors
But the reality is that it was only one game -- against arguably the NBA's best team -- and Golden State was not at full strength.
There will be spectacular nights in the new arena, and it's up to the players in uniform to give the fans something to cheer.
[RELATED: Beverley trolls Warriors' arena workers over KD leaving]
"This place is nice. It has a lot of potential, in terms of an atmosphere we can really build in here," Curry said. "It’s a lot of good things to it. We just have to figure it out here."
Besides, even though Curry's voice and opinion carry a lot of weight, nothing was going to stop the franchise from relocating to San Francisco.
“It was a total business decision," Curry acknowledged. "It makes sense the way they want to usher in a new era of global basketball. It was going to happen regardless of what I said.”