Prior to the 2009 NBA Draft, Stephen Curry’s father, 16-year NBA vet Dell Curry, told the Warriors not to select his son. Steph didn’t want to play for Golden State, and Warriors fans didn’t necessarily want him. The notoriously hard-core fanbase was split when the Warriors effectively chose Curry over Monta Ellis by trading Ellis to the Bucks in March of 2012. 

The next season, Curry erased all doubt. 

After breaking out in the 2012-13 season and going wild in the 2013 playoffs, leading the Warriors to a first-round upset of the third-seeded Nuggets before putting a serious scare into the Spurs in the conference semifinals, Curry’s status as Oakland’s adopted son was established. Three championships and two MVPs later, that player-city relationship has been cemented as one of the strongest in all of sports, and it has made the Warriors’ move to San Francisco — set for this coming season — all the more emotional. 

That said, Curry is going to love and rep Oakland as long as he lives, and vice versa, in part because he has always made it a point to not just put his name and face on things, but to show up and be one with the people. Curry did so again on Sunday when he and his wife, Ayesha, made a surprise appearance at Bay Area rapper Mistah F.A.B.’s basketball block party in Oakland and played in the pick-up hoops tournament

In true Oakland style, guys went right at Curry wanting to go toe-to-toe with the champ, and it’s hard to imagine a better feeling than the one this dude must’ve had when he stuck a pull-up 3-pointer in Curry’s face before Curry got some revenge with a turnaround fade from the post. 

The legend continues.