LAS VEGAS — Change has been a constant in the Bay Area since the Golden State Warriors won the 2022 NBA title, and Stephen Curry could very well be the last one standing.
Klay Thompson’s defection was proof that not even dynastic warriors are immune to everything that happens in professional sports, officially beginning the separation of the main members of the four championships.
And as the Western Conference continues to improve, it threatens to put the Warriors even further out of contention as they were already the 10th seed last season. Would Curry stick around for that?
“I mean, I can clearly say I want to be a warrior for the rest of my life,” Curry told Yahoo Sports in an interview Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas. “It’s always been my goal, and I’m saying it sitting in this chair right now, but like you said, life, and especially life in the NBA, is a wild environment and things change quickly.”
Curry still has two years left on his contract and, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, could sign an extension this summer. The Warriors offered Thompson a shorter contract last summer, which he turned down, preferring to play the full year and hit free agency. The Dallas Mavericks and other teams called, so now Thompson joins the defending Western Conference champions.
“Not having Klay, man, it still hasn’t sunk in, just because you guys have been doing this for 13 years together,” Curry said. “And you know, (Warriors coach Steve Kerr) made a joke. He’s like, sometimes you can’t find Klay in the off-season, and you don’t hear from him as much, and then he shows up at training camp ready to go.
“I kind of have this idea in October, he’s still going to (show up) like, ‘Hey guys, what’s up?’ But I know that’s not happening.”
Curry is aware that there is a perception that he doesn’t use his understandable influence to move things around in the organization, not the way LeBron James does or even Kevin Durant, but it seems like he just goes about business a little more quietly.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, Steph wants this? 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 said. “I know all the ramifications of every decision. You know I’m not the one making the decisions. But you know, you want that kind of collaborative approach.”
Punitive luxury tax aprons are causing teams to make difficult decisions. They were created to distribute talent across the league more evenly, but penalized teams that drafted well and kept their local talent.
And when you consider that salaries increase for older players, allowing them to take up more cap space as they age, someone is going to be squeezed between the wings – in this case, it was Thompson.
This signals that the Warriors are being careful from a fiscal point of view, even with the competition becoming increasingly fierce. They’ve managed to spend more than other franchises, but if those days are over, one has to wonder if Curry will stick around just to keep the building full and the owners’ coffers overflowing.
“Winning is hard in this league, man, and the fact that we’ve been able to do it for so long has been amazing,” Curry said. “Trying to keep the core together for so long has been incredible. Obviously, Klay is the first not to be a Warrior, and so it’s a very different dynamic.
“I always want to win, pure and simple. And there’s no contentment in just cashing a check and playing basketball and surviving. The pressure is applied like, I want to win.”
Curry will turn 37 at the end of next season, and while he’s not at the unanimous 2016 MVP level, he’s still the most feared nuke in the game. Curry, James and Durant are seemingly rewriting what it looks like to age gracefully.
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Curry and Durant, of course, made history as teammates, producing some of the most effective and aesthetically pleasing basketball the game has ever seen. Curry and James have gone from friendly and supportive to fierce rivals during their NBA Finals clashes and now teammates for the first time on the Olympic stage.
“Having Bron as a teammate is surreal because you have so many battles,” Curry said. “You admired his game. You know what he does, and seeing the work up close and personal every day, seeing how, you know, he prepares, how he talks in practice, like I’ve never had that point of view of his.
“So (I’m) really excited to see how our games complement each other and build that chemistry that will help lead this team.”
Their chemistry went through ups and downs. In 2008, James went to Detroit to watch Curry’s Davidson team play in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. But there were also the “3-1” cookies the Cleveland Cavaliers made to trick the Warriors after their comeback in the 2016 NBA Finals.
“It started off really well at the beginning, not to say it was bad at any point,” Curry said. “So he invited me to his house my rookie year, before we played in Cleveland, in Akron.”
Then it changed when the Warriors became more than a cute story and Curry more than a 3-point shooter. He was changing the game, and his mere presence threatened James’ position as the game’s leader.
“Obviously, in finals, it brings out the healthy animosity of someone standing in your way of a goal. And you know, you’re going to have a little bit of a fight out there,” Curry said. “But through it all, I firmly believe that you can be competitive, you can have that killer instinct and see blood on the other side, but still have the utmost respect for who you are playing against.”
James, in a small media session on Sunday afternoon, almost made it seem like it was some kind of media creation that he and Curry had to fight against, bringing up the (later) friendships of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, the tested in the Finals. friendship between Magic and Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley – who were close during the 1993 NBA Finals.
“You know the game of basketball doesn’t last forever. You don’t want to waste the opportunity… to have a relationship, to have that relationship (messed up) because of you guys,” James said. “So, like, you know, I don’t want to miss these moments.
“As much as me and KD have faced, as much as you know me and Steph have faced, I’m able to get out of my own way, not listen to the narrative of what, the false narratives that have been around for so long and be able to appreciate the man himself.
There was real heat, and if there was competitive resentment, it was understandable on both sides. James went through the challenge of being criticized by the media for failing, even on occasions when his play was stellar. Curry appeared almost seemingly out of nowhere and missed the car wash, being anointed as a darling.
From Curry’s perspective, he might just want to be liked by someone he admired or looked to for advice, but only with whom he was competing.
Finals and all the attention they bring put micro issues in a very big light. What could easily roll down the back can get under the skin, and scars and scabs can also be revealed.
However, these tension-filled moments disappeared and a long-standing respect was discovered. Curry said James was the first to contact him to gauge his interest in participating in the Olympics before the start of last season.
“So now we’re in a situation where we’re still in the same conference, they beat us in the playoffs last year and there’s still that competition,” Curry said. “But I can fully enjoy this experience and get to know him on a much deeper level as teammates, and I think that’s what we both deserve at this stage of our careers.”
At this stage in Curry’s career, he is getting closer and closer to the point of evaluating himself and the franchise he plays for. His game is so malleable that he could fit in almost anywhere, even as a co-star.
As he has stated, he wants to remain with the Warriors, but the door is ajar whether he says so openly or not.
“I want to be in the best position to make this (winning) happen, (it) doesn’t guarantee anything, but until that changes, and I feel like the energy changes, then I do my business the same way, and that’s where I’m at. ,” said Curry.
“Things change quickly and the league has changed quickly, so we are trying to adapt and evolve. And until (then)… I’ll let everyone know if that changes.”
