Stephen Curry’s free agency next summer likely won’t feature any fireworks: the NBA’s reigning back-to-back MVP can’t imagine playing for any team other than the Golden State Warriors.
Curry, 28, is in line for a massive raise (he inked what turned out to be a woefully below-market-value $44 million deal back in 2012.)
I spoke to Steph Curry, a terrific basketball prospect I believe will make waves in the NBA. https://t.co/tmj6ad0dnP pic.twitter.com/0TuSpQOWzn
— Jason Gay (@jasongay) November 29, 2016
Besides, why would Steph pass up the opportunity to continue chasing rings alongside Kevin Durant?
Per the WSJ:
Durant’s addition has also caused an atmospheric shift in Oakland. Curry now shares the court with another MVP—Durant is the last player to win the award before Curry won it back-to-back. Early on, Durant’s adjustment looks smooth—“The things he can do on the floor amaze you,” Curry says—but it’s possible Curry’s numbers will dip, a change everyone on the roster claims to be comfortable with if it means another championship. But Golden State is no longer viewed as the cuddly start-up from the Bay Area. It is now a presumed juggernaut, a Goliath, a Google.
At the same time, there’s revenge in the air. Last summer’s finals had a bit of everything, including a Warrior, Draymond Green, getting suspended for a game for hitting LeBron James in the groin. But in the end it felt like a declaration of James’s supremacy as the game’s best player. Curry had the back-to-back MVPs and the better overall team, but James was The Man, willing the Cavaliers to victory as Cleveland roared back from a 3-games-to-1 deficit. A historic season for Curry and the Warriors got spoiled. Not that he needs motivation, but Curry will not be complacent. “He’s a defending two-time MVP who still thinks he can get better,” says (Curry’s longtime agent, Jeff) Austin.
There’s also this: Curry himself will be a free agent next summer. Though Curry has been one of the most underpaid stars of the past few years and is due for a significant and deserved raise, it’s difficult to think of him leaving Golden State. Although he says “curveballs happen all the time,” it should relieve millions of people in the Bay Area that Curry feels that he is home. “It’s hard to see myself anywhere else,” he says.
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