Browsing: Steph

EIGHT DAYS BEFORE Al Horford signed with the Golden State Warriors, their soon-to-be veteran center found himself at a San Diego dinner with a group of men he’d only ever viewed as adversaries.

Horford calls his approach “old-school” in the modern NBA. He doesn’t “fraternize” with opponents.

“If you’re my teammate, I’m with you and I have your back and I’m all about you,” Horford told ESPN. “But all this hugging and half court at the end of the game and all this friendship. No.”

The dinner was casual. Camp was a week away. Horford wasn’t officially signed because of the Jonathan Kuminga stalemate, but he was committed.

As the wine flowed, Horford steered clear of any playoff heartache discussion with Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, one of his fiercest — and most impolite — East rivals. But Stephen Curry cracked open the door in a very Curry manner.

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“We talked about his Game 1,” Curry said.

In the 2022 NBA Finals opener, Horford hit six 3s and scored 26 points in San Francisco, wresting away immediate series control for the Boston Celtics as he ached for his first title in his 15th season. It was one of the best games of his career. But it was soon followed by one of the most devastating.

“Then we talked about Game 4,” Curry said. “When we kind of ripped it from him.”

In perhaps the most legendary game of Curry’s NBA career, he shook off a painful foot injury and scored 43 in front of a frothing Boston crowd to recapture control and flip the series into his fourth title.

In July, three years after that NBA Finals matchup, Curry got a text from Horford.

Those on the inside say Horford decided to join the Warriors on his own, no traditional recruitment needed. Green remembers asking general manager Mike Dunleavy later in the summer if he needed to call Horford.

“You can call him, but it’s done,” Dunleavy told Green.

The conversation with Curry, though, was important to Horford. The text led to a call in mid-July. Curry’s not only the face of the franchise, but the teammate, at 37, who is closest in age to Horford, 39. He wanted to ask Curry about the medical staff and maintenance program for a pair of players who began their college careers during the George Bush administration.

“So basically the most veteran conversation you could ever have in your life,” Curry said.

Horford’s addition means four of the Warriors’ most important players are all 35 or older. If Buddy Hield starts alongside Butler, Green, Curry and Horford in a game this season, it’ll be the oldest starting lineup in NBA history.

That fact alone signifies a prioritization of the present over a protection of the future. But the much discussed two-timeline approach, while altered and increasingly minimized, isn’t dead.

The Warriors still have near full control of their future picks and gripped onto Kuminga firmly this summer, even while the young forward longed for a fresh start. They could’ve had a steady veteran such as Royce O’Neale and some second-rounders for him, but there is still clearly a partial long view approach despite a rapidly fading win-now window.

“That’s one of the beautiful things about having this organization,” Green said. “We’re not sitting here like, ‘Yo, give away everything because we don’t give a f— about what this thing looks like in 10 years.’ We do. And so I think it’s only fair to Mike that he’s given a future, too. It’s important to do it the way that we’ve done it. We found a good balance to where we can compete and possibly win now and yet still have that flexibility and resources for the future.”

The Golden State Warriors went 23-8 after Jimmy Butler made his debut on Feb. 8. The Warriors were 25-26 before Butler’s first game, but finished the season at No. 7 in the West after defeating the Memphis Grizzlies in the play-in tournament. Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

IN THE LEAD–UP to the trade deadline in February, Curry and Kerr echoed a sentiment first shared publicly by Green. The three delivered a unified message about the need for their front office and ownership group to be pragmatic in their approach, stating that it would be unwise to unload all their future assets for the most realistic available upgrade.

Green even told Dunleavy and controlling owner Joe Lacob the summer prior not to green-light a trade for Lauri Markkanen, considering the Utah Jazz were asking for all the draft picks and young players.

“I’m a big fan of [Markkanen’s] game,” Green said. “But I think if you want to do something so huge you better be certain that this is the move. You usually don’t win those things against Danny Ainge. I look at history.”

The Warriors tried and failed to acquire a second offensive costar next to Curry before last season and lost Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks, but ripped off a 12-3 start, briefly thinking they had found a formula through depth. Then they went 3-12 over their next 15 games and spiraled into a 25-26 spot in mid-February.

“We were talking real big at 12-3 last year,” Curry said.

Curry and Green had a memorable conversation inside the Jazz visiting locker room the night the Warriors traded for Butler. Dunleavy, a former teammate of Butler’s in Chicago, vouched for him, believed in his fit, paid him a max two-year extension and pulled the trigger on a trade that cost only one future first-round pick — the 2025 selection, ensuring their future stash wasn’t handcuffed.

Curry called the approach “aggressive but reasonable,”

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It could be argued that the trade, while a rousing success, came too late and the 23-8 sprint to the finish line fatigued the older group enough to fade the Warriors out in the second round. The Warriors privately admit that Curry’s overuse in the Houston Rockets series partially led to his hamstring strain.

But the immediate contending-level success with Butler also served as a proof of concept to the stakeholders entering the summer that their new trio could compete if supplemented correctly. So they pursued Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Seth Curry, moves that don’t mortgage the future but come with the approval of Steph Curry, Kerr and Green.

Kerr called it a “commitment to Steph,” believing the front office and ownership has pivoted back to enough of a win-now approach to respectably compete in the final chapter of the Curry era.

“When you look back at the whole two timeline theory or whatever, I think it’s easy to sort of question it,” Kerr said. “But I think you just have to keep in mind the circumstances. At the time, we didn’t make the playoffs two years in a row. So when we drafted all those young guys, there was a real concern that the run had already ended. It made perfect sense to shoot for the stars with some lottery picks.”

There are certainly internal grumblings about some of the moves made and not made the past half-a-decade, most notably — as ESPN reported during the Kuminga negotiations this summer — Lacob’s unwillingness to include Kuminga in a trade for Alex Caruso a couple seasons back.

The James Wiseman draft pick at second overall in 2020 was a monumental whiff. If they wanted it, there could’ve been a trade path to Anthony Edwards at the top spot. Franz Wagner and Trey Murphy III were available to them during the Kuminga and Moses Moody selections in 2021. But that’s all revisionist history to the always diplomatic Curry.

“That whole conversation gets old quick,” Curry said of maximizing his window. “I get what everybody’s saying and the idea of it. But you make decisions with the information you have in front of you. If the information changes, then your perspective might change. That’s kind of how it is in the league in general. I say all that to say: I want to be competitive. Doesn’t mean you’re going to have a perfect situation where you’re the proverbial favorite. But I like where we are at.”

Al Horford came off the bench for 5 points, 5 rebounds and an assist in Tuesday’s 119-109 season-opening win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Horford’s 20 minutes off the bench were second only to Buddy Hield (22). Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

THE PINNACLE MOMENT of Curry’s career — that Game 6 clincher in Boston that had him in tears on the Garden floor as he won his fourth ring — was his newest teammate’s deepest professional pain.

Horford said it wouldn’t have subsided much had the Celtics not rebounded to win a championship in 2024. If Horford were still without a title — knowing which franchise and player delivered him the worst heartbreak — he doesn’t believe he could’ve joined the Warriors this summer.

“I think it would’ve been too hard for me as a competitor just because of how I operate,” Horford said. “So I just don’t think I could have.”

But the dominos fell fortunately for a Warriors core that has been circling but unable to obtain Horford for years. The championship thawed the ice. The Jayson Tatum injury changed Boston’s title chances. The new salary restrictions, Horford believes, forced him out of Boston.

“This whole CBA thing, apron stuff, it essentially destroyed that team that they built over there,” Horford said.

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So he looked elsewhere. He decided against retirement. He watched a resurrected Warriors team threaten in the playoffs without Butler. He could see it needed a capable veteran stretch center. The general manager of the team agreed.

“Mike’s been looking for a player like him his entire time here,” Kerr said. “Not just a pick-and-pop guy, but a legitimate big, who can make Draymond’s job easier, who can make Steph’s job easier. It’s really hard to find those guys.”

Dunleavy set out this summer with two tasks on his agenda — solving the Kuminga situation and supplementing the rest of the roster with veterans who best fit the Curry, Kerr, Green system.

Kuminga’s contract dispute was long, winding, messy and eventually solved. The other business, while unresolved in the public eye, was relatively tidy.

“I felt like there was a lot of upside in this thing,” Horford said. “So I just had to wait it out.”

Dunleavy had to make semi-frequent calls to reassure him of the sequencing of the plan, but Horford, team sources said, was their “absolute 1A” target and no other free agent was in his vicinity. They also held a level of interest in Luke Kornet, sources said, but he signed with San Antonio out of their price range.

To get Horford, they gave him a two-year, $11.6 million contract with a player option on the second season and a 15% trade kicker, delivering those sweeteners to close the deal. The second season lines him up with Curry’s, Butler’s and Green’s contracts, setting up a final chapter of contention for the foursome.

Atop the Warriors’ organization, there is still one eye plotting the future beyond this era. That’ll inevitably present another existential question the next time a costly trade option is available to them.

But four of the sport’s most important names of the past two decades — Curry, Butler, Green and Horford — are bought in on the belief that they’ve been given a realistic crack at a two-year run together.

“For me, it’s a privilege to have this opportunity and to be here,” Horford said. “They’re so accomplished. I do understand that there’s a lot that comes with it. There’s a lot of challenges. But I’m pretty excited.”

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Stephen Curry hasn’t just changed the way basketball is played — he has changed how itâ€s valued.

Spotrac released its updated list of the NBAâ€s highest career earners, and Curry currently sits third, behind Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Durant passed James for the top spot on Sunday after signing a two-year, $90 million extension with the Phoenix Suns, which includes a player option for the 2027–28 season.

Other members of the top 10 include Devin Booker, Paul George, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Damian Lillard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jayson Tatum — a mix of established stars and younger faces quickly climbing the list.

That younger wave could soon reshape the standings entirely. With Booker, Gilgeous-Alexander and Tatum all still in their late-20s and already on max extensions, theyâ€re on pace to shatter the totals set by Curry, James and Durant as new TV deals and cap increases drive salaries even higher.

Curry, though, has been at the forefront of the leagueâ€s salary evolution. In 2017, he became the first player in NBA history to sign a $200 million contract, a five-year deal worth $201 million. Two years later, he became the first to make more than $40 million in a single season.

He topped that milestone again in 2021, signing a four-year, $215 million extension that made him the first player ever to sign multiple $200 million contracts. That deal helped him become the first to earn over $50 million in 2023–24, and by 2026–27, he is set to be the first player to surpass $60 million in a single season.

Over the past few years, Curry has climbed steadily up Spotracâ€s career earnings rankings. He first appeared in the top 10 at No. 7 through 2022–23, rose to No. 4 through 2023–24, and reached No. 3 this year, where he is expected to remain for the foreseeable future as his current deal runs through 2026–27.

Curryâ€s journey into the NBAâ€s top three career earners reflects more than a decade of sustained excellence — and positions him to stay there as new deals reshape the leagueâ€s financial landscape.

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Steph Curry finally might get what he has wanted during the 2025-26 NBA season.

The league’s new “Heave Rule” takes effect this season, which states that any shot taken at least 36 feet away within the final three seconds of the first three quarters will count as a team shot attempt — not an individual one.

The goal is to encourage players to take more long-distance, end-of-quarter shots without negatively impacting their personal shooting percentages. Curry, who has taken plenty of those types of shots over his career, has been on board.

“I used to be like the grumpy old guy sitting on the porch yelling at people who didnâ€t take that shot because they were afraid of what it does to their shooting percentage,” Curry said (h/t The San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami).

Curry has no shortage of unimaginable half-court buzzer-beater shots, and now with the new rule, he might have some competition.

The rule states the play must have started in the backcourt for it to apply.

While Curry is a fan of the half-court heaves, he acknowledged that the technicalities of the new rule are a bit too complex for his liking.

“That’s too much to think about,” he said. “Just play basketball.”

In 1,026 career games through 16 seasons with Golden State, Curry has averaged 24.7 points on 47.1-percent shooting from the field and 42.3 percent from 3-point range.

It’s safe to say his shooting percentages haven’t been damaged by his many, many long treys.

“I could care less,” Curry said. “I get, what? 10 extra field goals maybe throughout a whole season.”

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Steph Curry and the Warriors have some unfinished business to take care of as their 2025-26 NBA season tips off Tuesday in Los Angeles.

After Golden State’s preseason finale on Friday night at Chase Center, the team’s star point guard outlined how Opening Night against Luka DonÄić and the Los Angeles Lakers can set the tone as the Warriors seek a return to the NBA playoffs.

“It’s the same mission every year,” Curry told reporters after the Warriors’ 106-103 preseason loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. “Last year we accomplished it, and the wheels fell [off] a little bit. But no matter [what], you don’t really want to fast forward too much or panic if it doesn’t go well to begin with, but you want to have intentionality on how you’re trying to start out both ends of the floor, understanding, again, we’re a team that is building on a foundation we had last year, so want to win the first game.”

Stephen Curry said the Warriors want to have “intentionality†with how they start the regular season Tuesday in Los Angeles.

“Were a team that is building on the foundation we had last year. So, you want to win the first game. Thatâ€s kind of how you take it.â€

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Curry and Co. will play their first game of the new campaign against a Lakers team without LeBron James, who is out with sciatica to start the season, at Crypto.com Arena. But after Los Angeles added DonÄić in February of this year, Curry knows a steep challenge awaits the Warriors as they enter their first full season with their own recent trade-deadline acquisition in Jimmy Butler.

“It’s exciting knowing we’re starting on the road against a team that — wish LeBron was playing — but is lethal with Luka, so a good test to start out, and hopefully we can hit the ground running.”

The Warriors jumped out to a 12-3 record in their first 15 games last season and certainly hope to do so again this year — but instead, keep that momentum going this time as the season progresses. They hit a wall after their hot start in 2024-25, and Butler’s arrival in February rejuvenated the team and helped Golden State reach the postseason before a second-round exit.

Now, Curry, Butler and the rest of the Warriors will look to begin the new season on a high note in just a few days.

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Maybe Bryson DeChambeau was nervous? Maybe Steph Curry just knows Lake Merced that well? Maybe Bryson was just struggling with his wedge game?

Or maybe Curry is just that good.

DeChambeau has released the latest video in his Breaking 50 YouTube series, with NBA star Steph Curry as his guest, playing at Lake Merced in San Francisco in the days leading up to the Ryder Cup. The conceit is well known by now: DeChambeau and guest play a scramble from the up tees at a given course and see if they can somehow shoot 49 or better. The only time he’s succeeded in doing so was with a pair of fellow content creators. To do so with Curry would set a new standard …

And that’s exactly what they did. But it was how they did so that stood out.

Curry drive from 320 yards — to four feet.

Curry 5-wood from 243 yards — straight as train smoke, LONG of the green.

Curry full 60-degree wedge from 104 yards — eight feet.

“He might beat me today,” DeChambeau said. And as much as he was joking, he wasn’t wrong.

Curry 6-iron from 211 yards — to four feet.

“I’ve got it in there,” Curry said, admitting he hasn’t played this well to start a round in a long time. “You just have to bring it out at the right time.”

Curry driver from 306 yards — to 20 feet.

Curry with pitching wedge from 143 — five feet. (Solo birdie)

Curry from 138 yards to 12 feet.

Curry from 205 yards to 20 feet.

Both players did their part on the greens, each holing a long one when they needed it.

Curry from 113 yards to six feet, and the putt for another solo birdie.

Curry out-driving DeChambeau on the 14th hole.

Curry off the tee from 320 yards — on the green to 41 feet.

Curry roasts a draw off the tee. It gets caught up in the rough … but still ends up a few yards further than DeChambeau’s driver.

“There are certain days when golf makes sense, and today is one of them,” Curry said as they drove in a cart up the 18th. When DeChambeau wedged it on, they two-putted for a finishing birdie and 49.

So, just how great was Curry’s performance?

He really did out-drive DeChambeau multiple times. Just as shocking, though is how helpful he was with his wedges, hitting a handful inside 15 feet, all while DeChambeau was struggling with his own wedge game. He had those two solo birdies on par-3s, which can be the most difficult holes for two-man scrambles to birdie. When it came to shots played from tee-to-green, Curry’s shots were used 11 times while DeChambeau’s were used 14 times. Pretty darn good for the non-professional golfer in the group.

But for those who aren’t just coming to Curry’s golf game for the first time, it’s not completely shocking. The 11-time NBA All-Star has won the annual American Century Celebrity golf event in Tahoe and has even competed twice via sponsor invite on the Korn Ferry Tour. Of course, that gets everyone thinking about a golf career for Curry when his basketball days are over. Even DeChambeau.

After over a decade of continuity for the Warriors, it’s clear that nobody in the organization gets special treatment. Not even the centerpiece.

Two-time NBA MVP Steph Curry is coached the same way as everyone else. Draymond Green elaborates on coach Steve Kerr’s style.

“Most people think Steph can do what he wants,” Green said. “No. He’s on Steph’s ass all the time. Defense, turnovers. He coaches Steph really, really, really hard. I don’t think people realize that.”

There have been multiple occasions where Kerr has shown his frustration with Curry through his body language. In a game early in the 2023 season, Curry flung a careless fourth-quarter pass in Minnesota, landing out of bounds near Kerr. The coach stomped around in disgust on the sidelines.

“The next day I pulled him aside,” Kerr said, relaying his message to Curry. “‘Hey, I was watching the tape and I saw my reaction, I shouldn’t have done that.'”

Curry’s response: “Hell no. That was a terrible decision. You got to coach me.”

Many coaches live by the theory that your best players should be coached the hardest in front of everyone to set the tone. Sometimes this can lead to a disconnect between star play and the coach.

“Not all players in this league can handle that being put out to the public,” Kerr said.

Curry is a rare breed. On the court, everyone can see why, but it’s his temperament outside the lines that can be overlooked.

“He actually probably gets on me more now than ever,” Curry said. “The one conversation we’ve had is to coach me like you would coach everybody because that’ll help strengthen your voice in the locker room, create that trust.”

Creating a culture starts with building an identity and holding everyone involved to the highest standard, including one of the best players of all time.

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Before they bonded on the court, Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr bonded on the green.

In an interview with ESPNâ€s Anthony Slater published Friday, the Warriors†star guard and coach revealed how a golf outing shortly after Kerr was hired in 2014 helped the duo form the chemistry that ignited Golden Stateâ€s dynasty.

As Slater writes, Kerr felt he needed to connect with Curry, the teamâ€s star, who had voiced support for the Warriors†previous coach Mark Jackson before his firing in May 2014. That connection came when he and Golden State CEO Joe Lacob met Curry and his father, Dell, for a two-on-two match at Pebble Beach.

“That’s when I really went into my spiel,” Kerr told Slater of his conversation with Curry between holes. “My whole thing was: ‘I’m here to help you build on the foundation that Mark has already built.’ I told him they were the fourth-ranked defense. Mark changed the culture and got them serious about two-way basketball. He established that. I said, ‘I’m not here to do anything other than help you build on the foundation that’s already there.’ And it was genuine.â€

Those words resonated with Curry.

“It helped that [Kerr] is a former player,” Curry told Slater. “It helped that you heard him talk on TV for years. It helped that I knew he was a GM [with the Phoenix Suns] even though that job didn’t go great. It helped that he wasn’t trying to blow everything up.”

At the time, the Warriors were in trade discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves on a potential blockbuster: Klay Thompson for Minnesota forward Kevin Love. Kerr, as Curry told Slater, was “very pro-Klay†when the subject came up on the course. In keeping with Kerrâ€s message of continuity to Curry, the team eventually chose to stick with its foundation and keep Thompson.

It was a productive day at the links, even if it featured something that would prove rare for Curry over the coming years: a defeat.

“[Kerr and Lacob] beat us,” Curry told Slater, shaking his head. “Joe played solid.”

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STEVE KERR BOARDED a red-eye flight back to the Bay Area on Dec. 25, 2016, and confronted what he now calls the biggest regret of his 11 years coaching Stephen Curry.

Business had ruined the Golden State Warriors’ holiday. They had blown a 14-point fourth-quarter lead to the same Cleveland Cavaliers who had ripped their hearts out in Game 7 of the NBA Finals six months prior.

In the heated aftermath, Kerr voiced his frustration about the Warriors’ lack of ball security, specifically calling out his star point guard. Kerr said Curry “could be a little smarter.” It became a dominant postgame talking point. Kerr cracked open his computer, saw the headline and cringed.

“What am I doing?” Kerr remembered thinking in the darkness. “I immediately knew.”

Both the soundbite and the context behind it stung Curry. His behind-the-back turnover late in Game 7 had become a summer punchline — the trophy photoshopped over the basketball to signify him throwing the championship away.

This comment reopened a wound at a time when the Warriors, now the sport’s villains after signing Kevin Durant, were a public punching bag. It fueled the fire. Curry had friends and family text him with essentially the same message: “Why would he say that?”

“I do remember that episode,” Curry said nearly nine years later. “The forbidden sin of coaching — when you out players in the media.”

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The plane landed and Kerr sent Curry a text. He asked if he could stop by Curry’s house the next day, and Curry gave him the green light. Kerr showed up. He acknowledged he screwed up. Then they discussed the need for Curry to value the ball more while also upping his scoring aggression.

“Typical Steph fashion,” Kerr said. “You just sat down and discussed things. He’s such a grown-up. He has such trust in my intentions.”

They went 56-10 from that point and steamrolled to a second NBA title together.

“The fact that he acted right away to come have a conversation [is what mattered],” Curry said. “We’re all just trying to win. As long as you can meet on that, that energy, you should be able to work through pretty much whatever.”

Kerr and Curry are entering their 12th NBA season together, three more than Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan and two more than Red Auerbach and Bill Russell.

They’ve been to six Finals, won four titles, accomplished Olympic gold, suffered through a 15-50 pandemic season, rebuilt themselves into a contender, watched the two-timeline plan sputter, seen franchise pillars such as Durant, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala depart and still believe they — along with Draymond Green — have another successful chapter to write.

“There’s a reason [Tom] Brady and [Bill] Belichick worked,” Kerr said. “There’s a reason Phil and Michael worked. It has to click. There has to be a mutual respect and there has to be a fierce, competitive desire. Passion for the job. Passion for winning. When all is said and done, it might be the most proud thing that exists. The most proud dynamic of my career will be a collaboration with Steph.”

Curry has two more seasons on his current contract. Kerr, who is not seeking an in-season extension, only has one year left. The question is presented to Curry: Could he play for another coach?

“I played for Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] twice at the world championships,” Curry said. “Mark Jackson. Keith Smart.”

Curry took the question literally. Could he? Yes.

“The game would translate,” he said.

But would he?

“I don’t want to,” Curry said. “We deserve that, I feel. Things change in this league. We can only control so much. But I think we’re in a very unique situation that we deserve the opportunity [to ride it out].”In 11 seasons together, Steve Kerr and Steph Curry have appeared in six NBA Finals, winning four titles with the Golden State Warriors. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo

KERR FIRST CROSSED paths with Curry when he was the general manager of the Phoenix Suns. He scouted a Davidson game in November 2007 against UCLA in Anaheim, California, when Curry was a sophomore. In the tunnel afterward, he ran into Curry’s parents. He knew Curry’s father, Dell, from their playing days. Curry’s mother, Sonya, asked Kerr whether he thought Steph could eventually claw into the NBA.

“I mean, think about that now,” Kerr said with a laugh.

Curry declared after his junior season. The Suns had the 14th pick in the 2009 draft. Kerr tried to attach Amar’e Stoudemire in a trade-up scenario to get Curry with the seventh pick. He viewed him as the perfect Steve Nash heir. The deal was close, but the Warriors ultimately backed out and drafted Curry.

“I don’t think I would’ve stayed in the job [even if I acquired him],” Kerr said. “I didn’t like the job of general manager. But the next GM would’ve been really happy.”

Five years later, Kerr was once again presented with the opportunity to work with Curry.

After a 51-win season in which a 24-year-old Curry made his first All-Star team, controlling owner Joe Lacob made the controversial decision to fire Mark Jackson in May 2014.

Jackson was Curry’s preferred head coach. The move risked alienating the franchise’s rising star. In the lead-up, Curry voiced resistance. In the aftermath, he voiced displeasure, setting the stage for what could’ve been an awkward transition to Kerr, hired just eight days after Jackson’s firing.

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“Those are two separate conversations,” Curry said. “It wasn’t necessarily like I’m holding like this grudge or resentment or making Steve’s job hard because I didn’t want Mark fired. That was more of a me and Bob [Myers] conversation. Everybody knew how I felt. But once the decision’s made, like what am I gonna do — sit around moping and feeling like the future’s not bright?”

Curry is reminded that some NBA stars might do exactly that.

“Well, the way he came in made it easy,” Curry said.

Kerr asked Myers for every player’s phone number. He knew how “attached” they were to Jackson and wanted to open the communication lines to discuss.

“The only guy I was worried about was Klay because Klay wasn’t calling me back,” Kerr said. “So I called Bob, and I’m like, ‘Bob, I think maybe Klay’s pissed about this coaching change.’ Bob starts laughing. He goes, ‘Oh, don’t worry. Klay doesn’t call anybody back. He may not even know.'”

Curry answered Kerr’s initial phone call while on a golf trip in Cabo. They planned to meet once he got back to the Bay Area. They had lunch together in Berkeley — Kerr, his wife Margot, Curry, his wife Ayesha, and their daughter Riley.

But that wasn’t the forum to discuss business. The ice-breaking, important conversation came a week later at Pebble Beach. They met for a two-on-two golf match — Kerr and Lacob against Steph and Dell. The underdog pairing won.

“I even birdied two of the first four holes!” Kerr laughed. “I was feeling it.”

Curry shakes his head at the result.

“They beat us,” Curry said. “Joe played solid.”

The Warriors were in trade discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love at the time. Minnesota wanted Thompson. The Warriors were internally debating it. Curry said they spent “maybe a hole or two” on the topic. Kerr, the newest voice in the room, was “very pro-Klay,” as Curry remembers it.

But the between shots conversation shifted to Jackson, the firing, the transition and the offensive schematics Kerr believed could take Curry and the Warriors to the next level.

“That’s when I really went into my spiel,” Kerr said. “My whole thing was: ‘I’m here to help you build on the foundation that Mark has already built.’ I told him they were the fourth-ranked defense. Mark changed the culture and got them serious about two-way basketball. He established that. I said, ‘I’m not here to do anything other than help you build on the foundation that’s already there.’ And it was genuine. Mark’s a friend of mine and I was genuinely impressed with the job he had done.”

Kerr came away from the golf course that day in more ways than one.

“It helped that he is a former player,” Curry said. “It helped that you heard him talk on TV for years. It helped that I knew he was a GM even though that job didn’t go great. It helped that he wasn’t trying to blow everything up.”

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Kerr waiting until after season to address deal

Kerr waiting until after season to address deal.

AFTER A SCORCHING streak of shooting in the aftermath of the Jimmy Butler trade in February, Curry hit a mini rough patch. The Warriors lost a March 17 home game to the Denver Nuggets in which Curry missed 15 of his 21 shots and turned it over seven times. Kerr told reporters afterward that Curry needed a “mental break” because of his accumulating fatigue.

“Not all players in this league can handle that being put out to the public,” Kerr said.

Three nights later, after a rest night, Curry had three turnovers and hurt his tailbone in a narrow home win over the Toronto Raptors. While Curry was aching in the postgame locker room — set to miss the next two games — Kerr lit into him in front of the team to remind everyone that their success after Butler’s arrival was due to their better ball security.

“Most people think Steph can do what he wants,” Green said. “No. He’s on Steph’s ass all the time. Defense, turnovers. He coaches Steph really, really, really hard. I don’t think people realize that.”

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In a November 2023 game, Curry flung a particularly questionable fourth-quarter pass in Minnesota, landing out of bounds near Kerr. The coach stomped around in disgust on the sidelines like Bobby Knight.

“The next day I pulled him aside,” Kerr said, relaying his message to Curry. “‘Hey, I was watching the tape and I saw my reaction, I shouldn’t have done that.'”

Curry’s response: “Hell no. That was a terrible decision. You got to coach me.”

“He actually probably gets on me more now than ever,” Curry said. “The one conversation we’ve had is to coach me like you would coach everybody because that’ll help strengthen your voice in the locker room, create that trust.”

Kerr is more often in a reflective state at this stage of his life. Curry, laser-focused on maximizing the back end of his legendary career, shields himself from it.

“The deeper we get into this thing, it’s the weirdest concept to kind of put in perspective,” Curry said. “I know there will be plenty of times where we’ll be able to crack open a glass of wine and like shoot the s— the accolades and experiences and just laugh. But it’s just hard to kind of get there right now.”

But he still has moments of reflection and mementos that he has stashed in what he calls his “keepsake box” at home. Among them: two letters. The first is from his brother, Seth, a valuable one to him because Seth “doesn’t talk that much.”

The second letter is from Kerr, written and hand-delivered at practice in the days after that postgame soundbite on Christmas 2016.

“He’s the only coach I’ve known to write handwritten letters,” Curry said. “It’s when s—‘s really going on. It’s not for everybody because people show love and appreciation in different ways. But I do appreciate it because it gives you somebody’s true thoughts and perspectives. It’s a lost art.”

Kerr and Curry took home a gold medal in the Paris Olympics last summer. Kerr was head coach of Team USA from 2022 until this year, when he was replaced by Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports

KERR LOVES TO tell the story about his San Antonio dinners with Gregg Popovich. Every time the wine is poured, Kerr says, Popovich raises his glass and toasts Tim Duncan. The first time he saw it, Kerr asked Popovich why.

“Without Tim, none of this happened,” Popovich told him.

Kerr’s offensive philosophy and system helped unlock Curry to become an all-time great. He shares some slice of credit in lifting the Warriors and Curry to dynasty heights. But, as Kerr said, the “sun” in their “solar system” is Curry because of the skill, the work, the culture-setting attitude and the ability to be coached.

“The rest of us have done a good job,” Kerr said. “I think I’ve done a good job. I think Joe’s done a great job as an owner. I think Bob and Mike [Dunleavy] have been good. Draymond’s been good. Everybody. But you take Steph out of this, none of this has happened. And I think we should never forget that. I know I don’t for sure.”

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Kerr has been voicing his appreciation to Curry more often in recent years. After Curry had his signature flurry to win the gold medal for Team USA at the Paris Olympics, Netflix cameras caught Kerr telling Curry: “I’m so f—ing lucky to be a part of your life. Holy s—. You are amazing. The finest human being I’ve ever met in my life, and I mean that.”

Curry doesn’t agree with every Kerr decision. He said they most often battle over minute totals, substitution patterns and the decision to rest him. There have certainly been times when he’s wanted more pick-and-roll usage over the years.

But the easiest way to understand Curry’s support of Kerr is Kerr’s longevity. Curry said management has never approached him about Kerr’s coaching security. It knows better.

“I would just assume there’s an understanding,” Curry said.

“Steve is Steph’s guy,” Green said. “So even if there was ever a thought [to let Kerr go], it don’t work. You speak to the Tim and Pop thing. That’s his guy. You see MJ, like, ‘If Phil ain’t here, I ain’t here.’ It’s along those same lines. There’s no Steph without Steve.”

Kerr made headlines recently when he said he wouldn’t seek a contract extension beyond this season. It puts his future in question. But Kerr made it clear it is just a wait-and-see approach and told ESPN he would not actively choose to leave Curry and the Warriors for another NBA coaching job. It’s more of a stick around or step away choice.

“Management and ownership would have to want it to continue,” Kerr said. “I would have to want it to continue. Steph would have to. I’m not finishing my contract and saying, ‘Alright, I think I’ll go leave for such and such job around the league somewhere. That’s not happening.”

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The Warriors will be without several starters for their third game of the 2025 NBA preseason.

Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Al Horford and Moses Moody all will miss Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, coach Steve Kerr told reporters Saturday (h/t ESPN’s Anthony Slater).

Kerr already had informed media members on Friday that Butler would be away for Sunday’s game as an excused absence, stating the reason was positive.

Meanwhile, Kerr said Curry is “banged up,” but the plan is for him to play Tuesday against the Trail Blazers in Portland.

Horford made his unofficial Warriors debut in Golden State’s preseason opener last Sunday, finishing with three points, four rebounds, three assists, three blocks and one steal. He was a plus-13 in 14 minutes.

Moody, after leading the Warriors with 19 points and five 3-pointers last Sunday, will miss the game in Los Angeles due to a calf issue. Kerr said Moody will undergo an MRI later Saturday, but the team believes it is minor.

The Warriors will start Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Quinten Post.

Strength in numbers will be tested early this season.

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