<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry has won four championships with the Warriors, the last in the 2021-22 season.<\/p>\n
Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry<\/a>\u2019s charmed life will continue, for it is a masterpiece of his own creation. There has never been a Bay Area athlete quite like him, and it\u2019s a treasure every time he puts on the uniform.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve always known, deep down, that \u201cWarriors<\/a>\u201d would be that uniform. Still, he wonders. Championships are in his blood, four times over, and if he believes he can bring yet another one home, who\u2019s to doubt him?<\/p>\n Well, at the moment, everyone. Even the most passionate Golden State fan has to realize that the Warriors aren\u2019t built to win a title this coming season. And that\u2019s the hell of it for Curry, who just won\u2019t acknowledge the dismissive critiques. It took him a while to decide on signing that two-year contract extension, which raises the 3-Dot\u2019s questions of the day:<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In the wilds of his imagination, could he picture winning that title elsewhere? With that in mind, how many teams would even be a sensible choice?<\/p>\n Not many, it says here. Remembering that this is an exercise in dreamland, unattached to the preposterous obstacles that make it so difficult for NBA players to switch teams, consider Curry\u2019s options if he could magically appear in some other uniform for training camp.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Spurs: Adding Curry to Victor Wembanyama means an instant title if they both stay healthy. He\u2019s exactly what San Antonio needs. But this team is all about youth, with the supremely talented Dylan Harper fighting for a spot in the starting lineup. Even if veteran point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox goes elsewhere, they are built to destroy.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Knicks: Definitely sounds interesting. Curry knows what it means to play in New York, and to summon grand theater as the league\u2019s No. 1 drawing card. So behold the Knicks, winning the whole thing with Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, spiritual force Josh Hart and 3-and-D mainstay Mikal Bridges as the backcourt\/wing starters. It was crazy. It worked. There hasn\u2019t been a repeat NBA champion since the Warriors in 2018, but maybe the Knicks feel they\u2019re bulletproof. Why mess with a good thing?<\/p>\n Thunder: Nobody\u2019s stealing that show from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and this is a deep, youthful team preparing to win a second title with only the center position at issue (after Chet Holmgren got schooled by Wembanyama in the playoffs).<\/p>\n 76ers: The starting lineup is set with mainstays: LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and 2025-26 rookie revelation VJ Edgecombe. Philadelphia needs to see whether those pieces fit.<\/p>\n Celtics: Trading Brown for Paul George and draft picks? That just didn\u2019t fly with Boston fans. In any case, the Celtics\u2019 3-point obsession makes them a crashing bore\u00a0\u2014 and Jayson Tatum wants to make sure he takes money shots.<\/p>\n Heat: Miami\u2019s frontcourt is suddenly a force with Giannis Antetokounmpo joining Bam Adebayo. Somehow, though, we just can\u2019t picture Curry in South Beach\u00a0\u2014 or trying to resurrect the old days with vagabond Klay Thompson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nuggets: They\u2019re growing stale in too many ways, and at his age Curry doesn\u2019t need to play half his games at altitude.<\/p>\n Cavaliers: Excited about the season, but that will never happen with any team featuring James Harden. Nobody understands that better than Curry.<\/p>\n Rockets: It\u2019s all about Fred VanVleet returning from injury at point guard, with budding superstar Amen Thompson alongside him. There\u2019s also Kevin Durant, overbearing but still the right man when it counts. Too complicated.<\/p>\n Timberwolves: Launching a showy backcourt experiment with clever eccentric LaMelo Ball joining all-world Anthony Edwards. Minnesota needs to see if that works.<\/p>\n Lakers: Oh, for heaven\u2019s sake.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In this mythical exercise, championships dangle in the breeze for Curry\u2019s perusal. In the end, he stays home. No drama. We like it that way.<\/p>\n Zoe strikes again<\/p>\n Good things keep happening to\u00a0Zoe Chait, just 20 years old and a Half Moon Bay standout in the big-wave galaxy. She caught everyone\u2019s attention on a 45-foot wave in the Thriller at Killers contest at Todos Santos, Mexico, in February, surviving a late takeoff and\u00a0midface air-drop to ride it out successfully. And she was rewarded with the Women\u2019s Biggest Paddle award in the 2026 Big Wave Challenge competition (paddling into the wave, as opposed to being towed in), ahead of Chile\u2019s Domi Charrier and well-traveled Californian Katie McConnell.<\/p>\n Already an alternate for the prestigious Eddie Aikau Invitational in Hawaii\u00a0\u2014 a rare tribute for any young mainland surfer\u00a0\u2014 Chait has been a sterling presence at Mavericks and throughout the North Shore of Oahu. During the awards ceremony at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach, she went out of her way to thank the coastside locals: fellow lifeguards, martial-arts trainer Raul Castillo, and longtime mentor Bianca Valenti, who oversaw her big-wave progress.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember surfing Ocean Beach with Zoe when she was afraid to go out there,\u201d Valenti wrote on Instagram. \u201cNow she\u2019s literally at the top of the game. The best part of doing this for a long time is getting to help someone else discover what\u2019s possible for them, too. Watching Zoe do exactly that is so f\u2014ing cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Short takes<\/p>\n \u2022 We all know about beleaguered Giants<\/a> manager Tony Vitello<\/a>, who managed to get invited back for another season, but that team needs some major changes\u00a0\u2014 like clearing out his staff of pitching coaches. Some are more capable than others, but it\u2019s big-picture time. Start completely over.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Giants continue to realize their enormous mistake in trading away Mauricio Dub\u00f3n in 2022. He\u2019s a shining light for the Atlanta Braves, making great plays, delivering clutch hits and earning deep respect from his teammates as they advance to the NLDS. (Meanwhile, catcher Michael Papierski, whom the Giants received for Dub\u00f3n, appeared in 22 games for Cincinnati that year after the Giants waived him and never resurfaced in the big leagues.)<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Really dumb\u00a0analytics, part 86: Sticking to his pregame charts instead of the action at hand, Boston Red Sox manager Chad Tracy pulled starters Payton Tolle and Sonny Gray with two outs in the fifth inning of both losses to the Yankees, each time trailing just 1-0. The dreadful procession of relievers turned both games into routs, and Gray was particularly steamed after his ridiculously early departure. Tracy deserves a roasting, but this happens routinely in the bigs. Too often with managers and front offices, it\u2019s a great big ship of fools.<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant each had playoff blunders that weren\u2019t just regrettable, but implausible, in the early stages of their postseason\u00a0careers. It happens. Kids wither under NBA pressure while the veterans calmly get things done. We\u2019re finding more of the same in the WNBA. Indiana\u2019s Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, the league\u2019s most explosive backcourt pair in memory, had a chance to take down Las Vegas in Thursday night\u2019s Game 3 but missed the shots that mattered while A\u2019ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young presided. That\u2019s after Minnesota\u2019s Olivia Miles, easily the Rookie of the Year and an outright master of court vision, admitted being \u201cvery nervous\u201d and completely wilted during New York\u2019s two-game dominance as the Liberty knocked off the top-seeded Lynx. They will all be back, just like Magic and Kobe, and the scripts will change.<\/p>\n Bruce Jenkins writes the 3-Dot Lounge for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jenksurf@gmail.com; Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Curry has won four championships with the Warriors, the last in the 2021-22 season. 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