Let this sink in; Steph Curry is the fifth highest paid player on the Golden State Warriors roster. In 2012, he signed a four year, 44 million dollar extension and obviously based on his success in recent years, Curry is underpaid. Since hindsight is 20/20, I’m sure the Warriors wish they could pay their superstar guard well into the nine figure area. But, Chef Curry insists that being an underpaid player doesn’t really bother him.
From Yahoo! Sports:
“I had to make a conscious decision and remind myself over and over [to let it go],” Curry told Yahoo Sports. “I could’ve had a different perspective and said, ‘I want to get everything that I could get, wait it out, test free agency that next year – and who knows what would’ve happened? But for me, a $44 million contract was plenty for me to be able to provide for my family. When I made a decision to sign an extension, I told myself that was the right decision for the moment.
“And, yeah, you should get paid market value, paid for what you’re worth, but at the time, for four years, I was comfortable with it. You can’t look back, because it’ll bring negativity. It’ll cause dissension in the team if you allow it to.”
At the intersection of the rookie extension window and the severe doubts about the stability of his ankles in the fall of 2012, Curry was a marvelous talent, but still far short of transcendent. Curry could’ve passed on the deal and gone into restricted free agency in 2013.
The choice was clear: Stay healthy, become a star and probably get a max offer on the market.
Or risk those ankles crumbling under him, leaving Curry without a lifetime of financial security.
“After three years, I’ve still got to remind myself every day,” Curry told Yahoo Sports. “Number one, there’s nothing I can do about it. There’s no point to moaning and complaining and trying to change something that really can’t be changed. I knew there might be a time down the road, after all the ankle injuries, that if I’m playing to my potential, it’s going to be human nature to think, ‘Oh, I should’ve done this, or that …’
“[But] at the time, the counsel that I got from my family, my agent, myself, was that it was the right decision to make. With that, I could take care of my family and be good. And hopefully anything that happened after that would just be icing on the cake.”
