Stephen Curry has once again proven himself to be an enemy of the proletariat and an implacable enemy of the third American dream. And this time, the cost to him and his burgeoning empire was just $20,000,000 (give or take a day trip to Monte Carlo), the difference between what he could have earned over the next two seasons, $136.7 million, and what he will get. What sap.
Curry just took over Golden State The Corporate Name, formerly GSW Sports LLC, for two more years, plus a player option that he would be a monumental fool not to exercise before the season he turns 41. His $62.6 million salary for 2026-27 will drop to $55.7 million in 2027-28 and $60.2 million during the optional 2028-29 season, in a law that confirms two mostly dismissed myths about team/player contracts in the modern era: first, that there is a hometown discount, and second, that the money can be left on the table without psychological harm to the recipient.
Curry’s motivation, as he has said too many times for cynical hyenas like you, is to give the boys upstairs room to improve the level of his playmates. It’s called the Reverse Kawhi Leonard, in which someone works for less money instead of working less for more money, and also the Backwards Ballmer, in which the salary cap is something to be taken into account rather than being used as a roll of toilets. It’s such an outdated place that they might as well move the franchise to Hooterville Junction and force all customers to leave their shoes at the door.
Before we get too diabetic about this, let’s make it clear that this doesn’t prove that Curry is better than the rest of us. He made a choice he prefers, not a sacrifice. According to Spotrac, he will have earned $649 million in total NBA earnings by the end of this optional third season, making him the league’s all-time leader in this category and the first player to cross the $600 million mark. That means her eight-figure magnanimity equates to a three percent tip. But it’s proof that he’s better than most of us, because we know how many times we’ve stiffed the Red Lobster server.
Still, we imagine that at some point he will stop doing jump shots from the lobby for our amusement and be welcomed into the boardroom of Golden State Corporate, if only out of shame, because he is more than anyone responsible for a company whose owners bought it for $450 million in 2010 and whose value has increased about 24 times since then. He is of that, and much more.
But even when you add in his array of endorsements and his stake in Unanimous Media, Curry doesn’t come close to having enough money to become, say, an NBA governor, which means he won’t own a majority stake in any team unless the sports bubble bursts. At that point, why on earth would you want to control a stake in a team? One supposes he could attempt to own the Lakers, since they go on sale every July 4 or so, but he would have to bring in partners to do so, and they would have to buy at such a price that none of them would want to be part of an operation that someone else could run.
All of this means that Curry can’t buy enough NBA teams to be the boss, which blows a number of holes in his grand plan to become a member in good standing of the elite Titanium Exploiter class. He could get to the Gold level, which means buying the Las Vegas Aces or Charlotte FC, but then he wouldn’t be able to set foot on the other employees while sitting next to the suite.
Too bad, too, because for all the praise that can be said about Curry, even with so much money at his disposal and these many accomplishments on his resume, he has yet to make the one leap that would make him a true monolith: membership in the Oppressor/Bastard club. To do that, you have to be, well, an, ick, owner. If that’s why he gave up that misplaced $20 million, to keep his soul where he can reach in times of need, then he really is better than the rest of us.
But it’s still early. The average age of sports owners is in their mid-to-late 60s, and most don’t become true thieving weasels until their mid-50s. In other words, he’s got a decade and plenty of change to go. In any case, we do not assume or project anything.
In the meantime, here’s what we have. If all it costs us to still think good things about Stephen Curry is a three percent tip on his career earnings, the price of two mid-sized mansions or one of the Canary Islands, well, few better deals have been made.
Gn sports
