Stephen Curry’s biggest fan lives in France.
Meet Antonin Orgueil. He’s a 19-year-old college student who runs the Twitter account antonin_org. If you’ve spent any time on the Golden State Warriors’ side of Twitter, you’ve probably seen him around.
Across his 25,000+ tweets, Orgueil regularly posts Curry's highlights, Warriors' highlights, Warriors-related numbers, and in-game commentary among others.
But actually, Orgueil's fandom started by accident in 2013.
“My parents bought a TV subscription to some channels,” said Orgueil, who has 55,000 followers. “And there was a channel that just started to broadcast the NBA in France.”
One day, he just happened to turn on the TV and was welcomed into Oracle Arena's sea of yellow during the Warriors' playoff game against the Denver Nuggets. Curry was going off, and even 5,600 miles away, Orgueil could tell the atmosphere was electric.
“I just immediately fell in love,” said Orgueil.
He also noted that while basketball is popular in France, the NBA isn’t anywhere close to the popularity it has in the US. The main reason? The time difference. NBA games in France start around 3 or 4 a.m.
It wasn’t until 2015 that he regularly started to tune in to Warriors games, coinciding with the start of the team's dynasty, led of course by Curry. Over the next few years, Orgueil watched almost every single Warriors game religiously.
In the summer of 2019, he joined Twitter. Initially, he just made a few videos, which performed well. But when he went back to school, his studies consumed most of his free time.
That changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
With a surplus of extra time, he started posting Warriors stats and highlights every day. And as a very focused Curry stan, his Twitter grew quickly. Now, he’s widely known as one of the biggest Warriors fan accounts on Twitter. So big, in fact, that when Orgueil finally made a trip to the Bay Area, ESPN and the Warriors gave him an official press pass.
Last April 1, Orgueil personally witnessed his first-ever NBA game, media credential in hand, as the Warriors fought a tight battle with the Phoenix Suns.
The first thing he noticed watching warmups courtside?
“Jordan Poole is considered small,” said Orgeuil. “But when you see him, he’s not small at all. Everything just seems bigger than on TV.”
Orgueil also met Draymond Green and former Warriors forward Richard Jefferson, who was broadcasting the game for ESPN.
Green has shared Orgeuil’s posts before on Instagram. Nemanja Bjelica has followed Orgueil on Twitter. But despite being mainly a Stephen Curry fan account, Orgeuil hasn’t had any engagements from the two-time MVP himself. Until a few days ago, when the Warriors sniper finally gave him a well-deserved follow.
The Bay Area’s local radio sports station, 95.7 The Game, even brought Orgueil to the studio and interviewed him. As his influence continues to grow, he has high hopes for the future. His goal is to do what he’s doing now full-time, which could manifest itself possibly in a media role covering the NBA.
But for now, he’ll keep grinding and he’ll keep putting out content on Twitter and YouTube.
To other social media hopefuls looking to make it big, Orgueil has one piece of advice: “Do something that no other people do.” That’s what he believes got his Twitter off the ground and that's what keeps it thriving.
So if you happen to be on Twitter and come across one of Orgueil's viral tweets—which is most of them these days—remember the man behind it: A 19-year-old college student in France, working tirelessly throughout the night, who, nine years ago, stumbled upon Stephen Curry and the Warriors quite by accident.
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