Stephen Curry sees opportunity for Warriors: ‘It’s still about winning’

Windows in basketball are a metaphor for opportunity. Finite chances for achievement. Open spaces that close quickly. The passing lane on a backdoor cut. A good look at the rim from a screen. The stretch run of a season. A swing game in a playoff series. An era.

Stephen Curry’s window is open, as evidenced by what he did in Paris. He widened it Thursday — signing a one-year, $62.6 million contract extension — while also underscoring the inevitability of its closing. A creative move for a player whose career has been about creating and exploiting windows.

Curry is now under contract for three years at just under $178 million. His contract expires in the same offseason as Draymond Green’s. And suddenly it feels like the beginning of the end. A calculated move to make one last attempt.

“It’s no different from my perspective,” Curry said The Athletics“You appreciate the position and the opportunity and the support of people who have been with you on the journey. I’ve always said I wanted to play for one team my entire career. So it’s good to get (the extension) question out of the way and just focus on basketball and the season.”

It’s a feeling Curry didn’t experience until his debut with Team USA. The basketball world is still feeling the effects of his Explosion in Paris during the Olympic Games. And he is still moved by it.

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It happened, Curry said, because he had to be completely in the moment. He waited too long not to dive in. It was a window that was thought to be closed, but the persistence of his elite kept it open long enough for him to take advantage of it. And he did.

“You’re completely there,” Curry said. “The sacrifice of what my family went through to have me completely there. It just gave me the opportunity to play basketball and have as much fun as possible. It was one of those pure moments that sticks with you when you look back on your life and the experiences you’ve had. It was the most surreal feeling, especially the way it ended. I felt like a kid again. A 12-out-of-10 experience.”

Part of the impetus for signing now was to capture that purity of focus. A fifth championship would be a fairytale ending to a storied career. But the Warriors, having missed the 2024 playoffs, have a steep hill to climb in a limited time.

Could Curry play longer? Of course. But he’ll be 39 at the end of his current contract, so it’s not a given.

This is the time the Warriors have. Three years to climb the mountain again. Three years to get the most out of the generational figure who has been a pillar for one of the great sports franchises of the modern era. The final trilogy for the 3-point king.

If Curry’s priority was extending his career, he would have waited until next summer to sign an extension. Then, at age 37, he could have signed a two-year deal, locking in an extra year of max salary and fully realizing his earning potential as an NBA superstar. But signing for one year now — the maximum allowed under the NBA’s “Over 38” rule, which limits contracts to three years if the player is 38 or older at the end of the term — carries some symbolism.

Curry took the money now, not later. He curated a three-year run instead of forging a four-year run, and perhaps pulled off a final trifecta. In doing so, he devised a clever way to give Golden State’s front office a vote of confidence without sacrificing urgency.

“It’s still about winning,” Curry said, “and taking the steps we need to take to give ourselves a chance. The standard hasn’t changed. The expectation hasn’t changed.”

Stephen Curry got a taste of the Olympics after helping Team USA defeat France in the gold medal match in Paris. (Tom Weller /VOIGT / GettyImages)

Knowing when the end might come should discourage complacency. Curry, who knows when to hang up his Under Armours, might be even more motivated to capitalize on his final prime. And more likely to go elsewhere if he starts to think the Warriors aren’t up to the task of a title. All NBA contracts are tradable.

The obvious lever was to wait until the next offseason, when he had just one year left on his contract. That would be the traditional way to hold Golden State’s front office accountable; the possibility of his departure would be like flames under their proverbial feet.

Curry wouldn’t put his name to the contract if he thought it was a white flag for the Warriors’ championship hopes. No way. He said the decision to sign now was a vote of confidence and a seizing of the moment. A commitment that promises patience but turns up the pressure.

He believes the Warriors’ efforts to land him a worthy supporting cast were serious enough. This extension is a vote of confidence that the Mike Dunleavy-led front office will continue to push for a title. Whatever happened this summer — especially what didn’t happen, as the Warriors failed to make a difference-making move — wasn’t an indictment of the franchise’s efforts, even if it did underscore the reality of their scant upgrade options.

But Curry was in the middle of all the moves, in constant dialogue with Dunleavy. Curry recruited Paul George. So Curry knows what the Warriors had in their power and how many of their mistakes benefited their rivals.

The next window is the February transfer deadline.

The Warriors are, objectively, not title contenders this season. They lost Klay Thompson to Dallas. They turned down deals for George and Lauri Markkanen, two players who could have helped them grow in the loaded Western Conference.

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Of course, that would be reason enough for Curry to wait until next offseason and hold off on extending his contract until the Warriors showed championship potential. But he extended his contract despite 82 games of kitchen-sink defense without a co-star to help the Warriors’ offense.

Another reason he might do so: Adding $62 million to the end of his current deal is a reward that’s hard to pass up, especially assuming the Warriors don’t take their foot off the gas pedal.. With training camp still weeks away, Curry’s name is the hottest in the NBA after he recast his legacy in gold. He’ll be 37 at the end of this season, so it makes perfect sense to grab the big extension now.

But if anyone has lasting influence, if an NBA superstar can be certain that his departure will be seismic enough to decimate a franchise, if anyone, even in his mid-30s, still has a reliable market for his services, it’s No. 30 in Golden State. There’s a good chance he’ll be the power player next season.

Yet Curry may have accomplished the dual task of maximizing his revenue and giving the Warriors a reason not to look far into the future. Because if the Olympics did anything other than remind them of their greatness, they evoked the harsh truth of their mortality. Putting him with LeBron James and Kevin Durant was compelling because of how impressive it was that they could still perform at this stage in their careers. And it also inspired an appreciation for the knowledge that their appeal can’t last forever.

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Curry’s first Team USA outing was his last. Because the show won’t last forever.

Now the energy of the last Olympics shifts to the Larry O’Brien Trophy, where his brilliant display inspired hope that patience, diligence and quality cohorts can once again produce a fantastic climax.

Curry knows that ring No. 5 may elude him. Championships are hard. The Warriors need a big breakthrough to get out of the Play-In Tournament. But what matters is a valiant effort. What’s enough for him is to honor everything he’s put into being ready for the season and being an ideal face of the franchise by trying to win now.

The window is open a little longer. But windows are only like that because they close.

(Top photo of Stephen Curry: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)