Stephen Curry has said he wants to retire as a Golden State Warrior. He is taking a $62 million step in that direction.
Curry has agreed to a one-year, $62.6 million max contract extension to stay with the Warriors through the 2027 season when he will be 39, a story broken by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Because of the NBA’s over-38 rule, one year was all the Warriors could offer Curry, and this extension is tacked onto the end of the two years, $115.4 million remaining on his current contract. Curry is already the league’s highest-paid player, making $55.8 million this coming season. This extension will push him over $500 million in career earnings joining fellow Olympians LeBron James and Kevin Durant with that distinction, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
Curry is coming off a summer where he filled in the one gap on his Hall of Fame resume, winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, and doing it in style.
Curry also is coming off another All-NBA season (his 10th) where he was the lone high-level shot creator on the Warriors and averaged 26.4 points a game (shooting 40.8% from 3), plus 5.1 assists a game. He remains the face of the franchise, owning more franchise records then we have space to list, and he also remains one of the faces of the NBA. This extension should squash speculation he might want out of the Bay Area.
For the Warriors, even at this price, Curry is a bargain. The income he drives to the franchise in terms of ticket sales, team sponsorships, television/streaming viewership, jersey sales and on and on is at least three times what he’s getting paid. Not to mention that he drives winning on the court.
Curry and the Warriors will head to Hawaii for training camp this season (as are the Clippers, they will face each other in a preseason game there), then will head into the season looking to improve on their 46-win, 10 seed season that saw them bounced by the Kings in the Play-In Tournament. Doing so would mean Curry not taking a step back next season while the increased depth around him takes a step forward.