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Stephen Curry can keep his feet on the neck of the Golden State Warriors’ front office while cashing in on his rightful leverage in the meantime as he enters the twilight of his career.
The compelling final two games of the Summer Olympics in Paris showed he’s still capable of producing on-call captivating 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 championship triumph in 2022.
It behooves 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 will turn 39 years old — and that sprawling newish building in San Francisco will still stay full in the meantime.
Who knows if the visuals of Curry and LeBron James during the Olympic Games stirred the anxieties of Warriors ownership, sensing an opportunity could 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 truly 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 put a stop to exploratory talks going further. If nothing else, it showed the Warriors were serious about big-game hunting — which was confirmed even more when they tried to break up the inevitable Paul George-Philadelphia 76ers marriage a couple months ago. And it will take something seismic to elevate the Warriors past a play-in tournament spot. They’re too good to rebuild, and with Curry, too entertaining to leave off 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 All-NBA Third Team, so his game likely won’t decline as quickly as his birth certificate collects a little more dust.
More help is needed, and the Warriors, despite the extension, are clearly on the clock.
Curry isn’t the type to huff and puff publicly about changes he wants made, but it doesn’t mean he’s quiet. It just means he goes about that business with a little more subtlety — and in the age of player movement, he’s the one with the most singular equity with his franchise. Of course, James has influence with the Lakers, but he’s not synonymous with them.
“It’s like this thing of, ‘Oh, does Steph want that? Or does Steph talk to the organization?’ Like, if you know basketball, you know how this works, like, I know what’s going on,” Curry told Yahoo Sports in an exclusive interview before the Olympic Games. “I know all the ramifications of every decision. You know I’m not making the decisions. But you know, you want that collaborative kind of approach.”
You associate Curry with the Warriors, and he’s made Hall of Famers out of the likes of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green — really good players who aren’t standalone talents. They’ve made life easier for him, and he has for them.
Now, with Thompson departing for an uncertain future in a promising situation in Dallas, Curry could’ve looked around and decided to test free agency in a couple years, even at age 38 and with the restrictive CBA rules limiting older players to sign for two years at a time. Instead, he opted for the most security he could garner and at least gives the appearance that he’s riding with the franchise while it tries to walk the line between the next generation and honoring the old guard that made it a prominent franchise.
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“I mean, I can clearly say I want to be a Warrior for life,” Curry told Yahoo Sports. “It’s always been my goal, and I’m saying that sitting in this chair right now, but like you said, life, and especially life in the NBA, it is a wild environment, and things change quickly.”
Just as the extension seemingly came out of nowhere, plenty of other developments can arise when one least expects it if Curry is taken for granted.