Stephen Curry can keep his feet on the neck of the Golden State Warriors front office meanwhile cashing in on his legitimate leverage as he enters the twilight of his career.
The convincing final two games of the Summer Olympics in Paris showed that he is still capable of producing on-call winning moments and greatness in clutch situations. But the Warriors haven’t surrounded him with a cast worthy of contention, winning one playoff series since their 2022 championship triumph.
It is up to Curry to sign that one-year deal that will net him $62.6 million, which was first reported by ESPN. It keeps him under contract through the 2026-27 season, when he’ll turn 39 — and that sprawling new building in San Francisco will still be full in the meantime.
Who knows if the images of Curry and LeBron James during the Olympics raised concerns about Warriors ownership, feeling that an opportunity might present itself if Curry got so fed up with being closer to the bottom of the West than the top. But if so, it could be the first sign management will actually push chips to the center of the table — because all Curry really wants is a chance to bark in the same yard as the new dogs in the conference.
It was revealed the Warriors’ trade deadline interest in James was indeed very real, and James’ representation stopped exploratory talks going any further. If nothing else, it showed the Warriors were serious about chasing big — which was confirmed even more when they tried to break up the inevitable Paul George-Philadelphia 76ers marriage a few months ago. And it will take something seismic to lift the Warriors past a play-in tournament spot. They’re too good to rebuild, and with Curry, too entertaining to leave on national television, but they’re not good enough to fear in a championship situation.
And Curry still played 74 games last season, winning Clutch Player of the Year and making the All-NBA Third Team, so his game probably won’t decline as quickly as his birth certificate gathers some more dust.
More help is needed, and the Warriors, despite the extension, are clearly on the clock.
Curry isn’t the type to blow the whistle publicly about changes he wants to make, but that doesn’t mean he’s quiet. It just means he goes about that business with a little more subtlety — and in the era of player movement, he’s the one with the most extraordinary equity with his franchise. Of course, James has influence with the Lakers, but he is not synonymous with them.
“It’s like this thing of, ‘Oh, does Steph want that? Or is Steph talking to the organization?’ Like, if you know basketball, you know how that works, like, I know what’s going on,” Curry told Yahoo Sports in an exclusive interview before the Olympics. “I know all the ramifications of every decision. You know I don’t the decisions. But you know, you want that collaborative kind of approach.”
You associate Curry with the Warriors, and he’s made a Hall of Famer out of the likes of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — really good players who aren’t stand-alone talents. They made life easier for him, and he has for them.
Now, with Thompson leaving for an uncertain future in a promising situation in Dallas, Curry could have looked around and decided to test free agency in a few years, even at age 38 and with the restrictive CBA rules limiting older players from signing for two years. years at a time. Instead, he opted for the biggest safety he could get and at least gives the appearance that he’s riding with the franchise as it tries to walk the line between the next generation and honoring the old guard that made it a great franchise.
“I mean, I can say clearly that I want to be a Warrior for life,” Curry told Yahoo Sports. “It’s always been my goal, and I say that sitting in this chair now, but like you said, life, and especially life in the NBA, it’s a wild environment, and things change quickly.”
Just as the extension seemingly came out of nowhere, many other developments can arise when you least expect it if Curry is considered.
