Golden Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry has signed the biggest contract in the NBA history. Curry has agreed to a five-year contract extension worth a reported $201 million.
Curry’s previous contract before he won back-to-back MVP awards and the Warriors won two NBA titles — was for $44 million for four years. Curry’s new deal surpasses the $175.74 million deal Blake Griffin agreed to with the Clippers only hours earlier on Friday.
New deals won’t become official until Thursday, which explains the Warriors’ cautious approach toward the Curry news. “We intend to enter into a Player Contract with Stephen once the Moratorium Period ends,” general manager Bob Myers said in a statement.
Curry’s $40.2 million average salary is also an NBA record. Griffin’s deal will pay him $34.15 million per season, LeBron James will average $33.28 million in the final two years of his three-year deal with the Cavaliers, and Memphis’s Mike Conley — who, until Griffin’s deal, had the largest contract in league history at $152 million — will average $30.5 million per season through 2020.
One of the next moves for the Warriors will be to sign Kevin Durant. The Finals MVP is expected to accept $4 million less than he could get, but he will still be paid at least $30 million next season.
With Curry, Durant, Draymond Green (five years, $82 million) and Klay Thompson (four years, $68.9 million) already under contract, the Warriors will pay four of their five starters more than a combined $100 million next season.
The Curry and Griffin deals came in the opening hours of the league’s free agency period. By some estimates, NBA teams might agree to more than $2 billion in contracts within the next week.
The Warriors initially raised some eyebrows when they signed Curry, their first-round pick in 2009 (No. 7 overall) to a $44 million extension that went into effect in 2013-14. There was some concern about Curry’s durability after he had battled ankle injuries early in his career and played only 26 games in the 2011-12 season.
But beginning with the 2013-14 season, Curry has played at a Hall of Fame level. He’s made the All-Star team four straight years, has led the league in three-pointers each of the past five seasons, including a league record 402 in 2015-16, and became the first player to be unanimously selected as MVP when he won the award for the second time a year ago.
Curry averaged 25.3 points, 6.6 assists and 4.5 rebounds this season.
