Riding the Bart subway car from San Francisco to Oakland all you see is a sea of blue and gold. On this night it has nothing to do with the warm sun beaming off of the Pacific Ocean.

Just passing Fruitvale station, a new celebrity star is being born like the NBA hasn’t seen since Michael Jordan roamed the court. The squelching sound of metal on metal means the train is coming to a stop. Soon the squealing will be indoors by adoring fans for a train whose momentum just continues to pick up. The trek of the these thousands from “Dub nation” happens early to see their messiah.

Walk into Oracle arena pregame and you better arrive promptly if you want a good shot of the great shots. The buffet of Warriors stars on the court warming up supersedes the local Bay Area food options. But everyone in attendance – and even some paid to play that day – are looking at one man. The one who got all the first-place MVP votes a year ago.

Stephen Curry runs out early with no headphones unlike Kevin Durant who is wearing Beats by Dre’s as he bobs his head furiously to the beat. Curry takes in the crowd fully, winking and talking to the fans watching. For him this is a sensory experience to be savoured. By the 30’s on their jerseys it is obvious they are there to see him and his gifts.

Thousands are unintentionally working on trap exercises as they hold their phones high to get a picture of the pregame Picasso painting. Curry’s full routine is videotaped, streamed online, and shown on TV locally. The Warriors and NBA both have social media plans about what content of his to capture, every game.

During the 2016 NBA Finals, ESPN SportsCenter took his pregame shots live, switching from multiple camera angles and kept stats on what his percentages were shooting from different areas of the court. All of his full pregames are uploaded before the game starts.

“It started off of the nickname I got my rookie and sophomore year,” he says, “‘Trickshot Curry’ because I would throw up a bunch of random shots around practice and usually make them.”

The most famous part of the whole thing is a shot he’ll never take in a game. His warmup comes to a close with a shot from the hallway about 60 feet to the right side of the basket. Remarkably, he usually makes it in two or three tries. At max it takes six. The inspiration for his hallway shot came from a former teammate.

“Monta Ellis would do a backwards shot in the hallway, but he didn’t do it every game. But a few years ago, one of our Warrior employees said I bet you can’t make that shot right there so it became an ongoing ritual until now involving Curtis the usher who is always there throwing me the ball and rebounding for me.”

“I won’t always make it, but it is usually a good sign when we do,” the superstitious Curry admits. Notice the use of the word ‘we’. That’s not a transcription typo. In his mind it’s a communal effort.

Oracle arena usher Curtis Jones has become a friend, confidant and good luck charm, “He calls it a putting a little mojo on the ball. A little good luck and it spiralled from there”.

Jones has been an usher at Oracle for 23 years and in his spot between the Warriors bench and locker room tunnel for 15. “His ritual started bringing them in,” Jones explains.

Curry goes through a 30-minute master class that starts with a two-ball drilling display and ends by taking a bunch of half-court shots where he doesn’t break his usual form, just flicks his wrists a bit harder. The organization has started opening the doors three-and-a-half hours before tipoff, earlier than any other team in the league, to accommodate the added pregame attention.

Most around the team feel fans started to take notice around three years ago in lockstep with when Curry and the Warriors became the darlings of the league. Even after they’ve been dubbed Super Villains for adding Kevin Durant to their 73-win squad it’s all love from the home crowds.

When he’s done, Curry starts an impromptu dance with his friends on the clock to keep everybody in the organization loose.

“We do a little dance in the back,” Jones states matter-of-factly as if it’s not odd one of the world’s most recognizable athletes dances with security members before a high-pressure game. Curry took inspiration from the “Jones BBQ and Foot massage” video that went viral and took up the dance with the ushers.

Even off the court, Curry is having fun performing and after the team comes out of the locker room the games don’t end. Curry doesn’t need the target practice most players do, so instead he’s made a ritual of playing cross-court games with reserve guard Ian Clark. Sometimes it is football.

Or possibly inspiration from his mother and sister who were volleyball players in college.

I think @sydelcurry has taught Steph a thing or two… A video posted by Stephen Curry Legion (@currylegion) on Dec 23, 2016 at 4:51pm PST

And even an ode to his time in Canada with some curling.

Aiming to please by increasing the degree of difficulty seems to be part of his makeup. Even his mouthguard can be part of his optical illusion-style game, during live play no less.

As the hallway threes continue to spiral in with more and more regularity, Curry’s usher companion is now recognized by fans for being in all the videos that have gone viral. Jones even gets a few autograph and photo requests of his own. Not just the hired help, he’s part of the Stephen Curry experience.

The true metric of Curry’s popularity is his ceremonial pregame tweet. Before every game he tweets “lock in”. The benign social media statement gets thousands of retweets within minutes.

It’s become so popular that the timing of the tweet has been analyzed to draw a correlation to how he plays.

With all of the flashbulbs, hordes of high-fives and frequent photo requests, how would you lock in for a game? The laser focus needed to compete would be tough with fans waiting for you to get in focus to snap shots for their personal Instagram accounts. Jones insists it isn’t a burden.

“He is the most down-to-earth player I’ve seen in my time here,” Jones declares. “He enjoys making people happy. He takes out the time to show people appreciation. So I don’t think it hurts him to take the time. He’s that kind of a person. It’s a testament to the type of person he really is.”

Of the thousands of fans who forgo their seats to get a good look at Curry, about a hundred hang over the side railings surrounding the court to get anything signed by their hero via Sharpie . After the workout, Curry moves with the precision of an assembly line for another 25 minutes going back and forth signing everything on both sides before sprinting full speed with boyhood enthusiasm down the tunnel and out of sight.

Steph Curry with the sharpie boy! Spent as much time signing as he did shooting pregame. #dubnation A photo posted by Donnovan Bennett (@donnovanbennett) on Nov 13, 2016 at 4:50pm PST

Jones doesn’t view the added pregame attention he has to pay as negative.

“My job isn’t really difficult because I enjoy the people also. I think they deserve the whole experience. That’s how I look at it. I think that people get excited about Stephen Curry. I can respect that because the fans make things happen.”

Even the best made pregame plans can require a detour. Occasionally the road team decides to shoot their pregame shots on the Warriors basket, making the hallway shot impossible without causing beef with the opponent. In that instance, Curry shoots diagonally over 100 feet to the other side of the arena. It’s more of a shot-put release then a set three-point shot.

“I get four shots at a year at it because San Antonio and Utah are the only teams that really switch.”

Even the unanimous MVP hasn’t hit that yet.

“No. He’s come close,” Jones says. “He’ll make it one day.”

“I think I’ll make it eventually,” Curry says with a grin. “I hope you’ll be there to see it.”

Curry’s pregame revolution will be televised; and at this rate when he hits that shot no one’s going to miss it.