The torch that passed from Wilt Chamberlain to Kobe Bryant is now in Stephen Curry’s hands.

It’s the torch of guy-superstar support for women’s sports.

Women are not dependent on the support of famous male athletes to make a go of, say, the WNBA. But such support can provide a helpful breeze in the sails.

Chamberlain was a huge champion of women’s sports. In the 1970s, he founded and sponsored a women’s track team, Wilt’s Wonder Women, who ran in the Rock-n-Roll Marathon he co-founded. He founded and coached a women’s volleyball team, the Little Dippers.

Chamberlain once told me that when he was in high school, it killed him that there were no sports opportunities for his athletically talented sister, and he vowed to do what he could to address that unfairness.

Wilt’s fame and personality added credibility to female sports at a time when women and girls were fighting for basic recognition and acceptance, just a chance to play.

Wilt died in 1999. Bryant eventually picked up the torch. His support for women’s basketball was major. He formed a friendship with Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu, out of respect for her game and passion, and in part (I’m guessing) because he knew how inspiring Ionescu is for girls like Kobe’s daughter, and what Ionescu will do for the growth of the WNBA.

Bryant “was just getting started” as a champion of women’s basketball, WNBA star Katie Lou Samuelson said recently. Bryant spent time coaching and counseling Samuelson. She added, “Now I think there will be (more male athletes) that will step up and carry on that legacy.”

That’s Curry’s cue. Actually, he’s been stepping up for some time. Like Bryant, Curry befriended Ionescu, and Friday he took his two daughters to the Cal-Oregon women’s basketball game.

Curry’s involvement with the female hoopsters isn’t photo-op superficial. He recently hosted a basketball camp for 200 girls, and wrote of it in the Players’ Tribune.

“I think it was the sort of thing that can help to shift people’s perspectives,” Curry wrote. “So that when someone sees an NBA player is hosting a camp, now, you know — maybe they won’t automatically assume it’s for boys. And so eventually we can get to a place where the women’s game, it isn’t ‘women’s basketball.’ It’s just basketball. Played by women, and celebrated by everyone.”

Chamberlain, Bryant and Curry are not the main movers and shakers in women’s sports. The heavy lifting, on the court and off, is done by women. But in Wilt, Kobe and Steph, women have a heck of a support group.

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler