For Stephen Curry, winning an Olympic gold medal undoubtedly alleviated the disappointment of missing the playoffs at the end of the season with the Warriors. Now, he can completely shed that disappointment.
On August 30th, Curry’s agent, Jeff Austin, disclosed that Curry has agreed to a one-year contract extension worth $62.6 million with the Warriors.
The new contract means Curry’s partnership with the Warriors will continue until at least after the 2026-27 season.
With this new contract, the total value of Curry’s current deal reaches $178 million. If Curry chooses to retire at the end of his current contract, he will have earned a total of $532,677,168 in salary over an 18-year career, making him the third NBA player in history to earn more than $500 million in career earnings, following LeBron James and Kevin Durant. With the new contract, including this season, Stephen Curry will have been the highest-paid player in the NBA for nine consecutive seasons.
While Curry’s early extension may come as a surprise, it isn’t unexpected.
In August 2021, Curry signed a four-year, $215.4 million contract with the Warriors, which still has two years remaining. This means he could only sign a one-year extension during this off-season because the NBA’s “over-38 rule” prevents teams from offering contracts of four or more years to players who are 38 or will turn 38 during the contract period.
Last month, the 36-year-old Curry expressed his desire to stay with the Warriors – the only team he has ever played for – and retire there.
Curry said at the time, “I’ve always said I want to be a Warrior for life, and at this stage of my career, I feel like that’s possible.”
However, he also expressed a desire to remain on a competitive team, saying, “If we were at the bottom and just staying for the sake of staying, that would be hard for me to accept. But I don’t think that will become reality.”
Meanwhile, leveraging the remainder of Curry’s career is the top priority for the Golden State Warriors this summer, as the team is working hard to restructure and improve its roster. The belief within the Warriors organization has always been that as long as they have Curry, they have a chance to achieve something.
Warriors General Manager Mike Dunleavy stated in July that he was “confident” in getting Curry to sign for a few more years and said that Curry could “get whatever he wants” to ensure this.
Why?
To some extent, Curry’s extension is surprising. By signing an extension and locking himself in for the next three years, Curry – on the surface – gave up a key bargaining chip with management. His hope for a fifth championship rests on whether management can make the right decisions to provide him with a strong supporting cast. And his “threat to leave” was likely a significant factor in ensuring management’s diligence in this area.
But by signing the extension, Curry is also showing a degree of trust in the Warriors, trusting that they will continue to work hard to give him another chance at a championship. He has been closely involved in the Warriors’ work this off-season – from personally recruiting Paul George to regular conversations with General Manager Mike Dunleavy – and Curry’s signing expresses confidence in these efforts.
This is also a risk mitigation measure. Curry locks in a lucrative contract now rather than waiting until next summer. Curry has just experienced what might be the greatest moment of his career, performing exceptionally well during the knockout stages of the Paris Olympics, and he certainly deserves every penny the Warriors are paying him. However, he will turn 37 by the end of this season. There won’t be another superstar around him to share the offensive load. And the Warriors are not considered title contenders by any objective standard. Who knows if he will still command his current market value by July 2025?
What does this mean?
The two-time MVP, Curry, will turn 37 next March, but he continues to perform at a top-tier level in the NBA. Last season, in 74 games, Curry averaged 26.4 points, with a three-point shooting percentage of 40.8%, along with 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds, marking his 13th consecutive season with a three-point shooting percentage above 40%.
However, the Golden State Warriors finished last season with a record of 46 wins and 36 losses and were eliminated in the play-in tournament, their third failure to reach the playoffs in the past five seasons.
In the 2024-25 season, Curry will face his first season since the 2011-12 season without his backcourt partner Klay Thompson on the roster. However, this team being rebuilt around Curry includes championship teammates Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, Kevon Looney, Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody, as well as newcomers Buddy Hield and Kyle Anderson.
On Wednesday, Curry hosted a charity golf tournament, with proceeds going to the Eat.Learn.Play. Foundation he and his wife founded, which aims to help schools in Oakland.
When interviewed, Curry said, “Everything happens for a reason, and each journey brings different experiences. This summer has been fantastic; despite a tough NBA season, I experienced victory at the Olympics, followed by our foundation events and community work in Oakland… all of this makes me appreciate what basketball means to me and the opportunities it provides, and I want to make the most of them.”
With the extension signed with the Warriors, Curry can now take a breather, at least until the Warriors start training camp in Hawaii in early October.