Steph Curry on Warriors roster, playing with LeBron, greatest team ever & Nike | Draymond Green Show

We come in and it's kind of like this mix of old guys, if you will, and young guys.

Yeah.

And I made a comment earlier in the year and I said, we've never seen this work where you're trying to mix the past, or not the past because we're still—

Yeah.

All in our prime, but past success of the group that you've had success with and future of who you think you can have success with and trying to combine those two. Historically, we had never seen that work. And I said that in the press conference. Now what takes the cake is me saying historically we've never seen that work. What no one does acknowledge is the part of me saying that's the challenge for us as leaders of this team. That's the challenge for us. That's the challenge that you embrace. And you want to be the group that can make that work. No one talks about that part. They only talk about the first part. But, and now we've played 82 games.

Mm-hmm.

And you've seen how it all come together. What are your thoughts on this current team and what needs to happen for this team? Obviously we know health, you know, we gotta stay healthy. I've been out, Klay missed the first half of the season. I missed essentially half of the season right in the middle. And then you've missed the last few weeks. So obviously, hell, but what has to happen as far as like our young guys coming along? Who do you think is gonna be that X factor? What has to happen for us to ultimately do what we set out to do? And that's win the championship.

I mean, this year has been, it's been interesting 'cause we laughed about it a little bit. Like nobody expected us To start off the season the way we do because of the questions coming into the year about the two different timelines, not knowing what, you know, Otto and Belly as vet minimum guys and Andre is, you know, where he was in his career, like what, how they would mesh with us and all that. You know, essentially the team that started off hot and the way we started off the season was, off the way we ended last year, you know, mixed with a little bit more veteran presence and two young guys that have so much potential, but don't have a defined role or consistent opportunity. So we've gone through all of that. And like you said, injuries and Klay coming back and, you know, JP's ascension and all that. So what needs to happen is health, like you said, but we keep doing what we're doing in terms of understanding how we play. And then defensively, obviously that is gonna take the cake. And it's amazing to have you back. You know, feeling good and healthy to help lead that charge. But we know how the playoffs, the rotation gets tight.

Absolutely.

But you, with that tight rotation, you have those 3 to 4 guys and it's gonna be J.K., Mood, you know, D. Lee, Juan, even GP a little bit. Those guys, depending on matchups, depending on how a series go, you have to be prepared and ready and locked in to, what you're gonna be asked to do. And that could be 5 minutes, that could be a 30-minute run. That can mean starting one game, come off the bench one game, like the flexibility in that because we have so many pieces to go to. Like some teams they have 8 guys and they gonna play 8 guys the whole run and that's it. We're not that team. So if we play like, you know, our rotation, we play at the highest level, do what we need to do. And we have, you know, our guys ready to step into those roles. You know, on a moment's notice, that's gonna give us our best chance. 'Cause we know it's gonna be tough. We know how hard it is to win a championship, how many things have to go your way, but we can take on that challenge of what you said, starting the season, like doing something that hasn't been done historically. And then we'll deal with what comes next, you know, when it comes, 'cause that's the nature of the NBA. But I like the fact that we have the ability to throw a bunch of different guys out there. Mm-hmm. And trust that, you know, they can provide and provide value and do what they need to do out there. And no brighter stage than the playoffs to show that, 'cause it's just a different energy. And when you look back, like, certain guys that have helped us win a series or a championship, some of the names will be, you know, will hop off the page in terms of some unexpected guys that came into a role and did what they needed to do. Yeah.

100%. And speaking of a championship, if you could trade the 2017 and '18 championship to complete the 73-win championship, would you trade those two championships to complete the 73? Uh. Mm.

So let me get the resume right. So I have, we'd have 2 chips and a damn near perfect season.

Mm-hmm. Or 3 chips and a bomb. Or 3 chips and then Draymond Green on the 16th. You see, I didn't even wanna say it. You see, I blanked out as soon as I had to even acknowledge it.

Oh man, I don't even know how to answer that question. I would say no, but I think for the rest of our life I'll still be able to just laugh at '16, which is fine.

It's fine.

It's always gonna be that just like awkward like acknowledgement of an amazing regular season and the finals run. But yeah, I say no, but Get you a Steph Curry in your life. I'm glad I don't take myself too seriously.

Get you a Steph Curry in your life. Dang, that was hard. You don't have you a Steph Curry in your life, get you a Steph Curry. Because if he say yes, this interview is over. My heart was broken. Get you a Steph Curry. 'Cause he mean yes. Get you a Steph. No, I think honestly, that essentially puts you in a place of undoubtedly the best team ever. If we were to complete it. Now—

Cool to be in the conversation.

To be quite frank with you, I still think we had best team ever. Although we didn't finish it and win the championship, I still think that was the best team ever until 2017.

I was about to say, where we going with that?

'Cause that team was nuts. Until 2017. And then I think that team took over as the greatest team ever. So I think we still accomplished it. Best team ever, but not quite, you know, people take numbers and they wanna put the numbers there and say, oh, well the Bulls had 72 wins.

It's a feeling, bro.

Like, exactly. We were the best team ever. I don't care what no one said. I can't see anyone beating that 2017 team. Not even our first, the '15, '16. I can't see anyone. Beating that 2017 team.

They say in the medical field, I concur.

Hands down.

That's it.

The best team ever. Speaking of playoffs, Lakers had a rough year as we all know, no surprise there. But LeBron says the other day, last week or something, whenever it was, that he has one guy in the NBA right now that a current NBA player that he wants to play with. That player happens to be you. And I know I saw the other day where you said, you laughed about it and you was like, oh, I'm good. But like, take me deeper into that. Number one, I mean, you're on that level, but like LeBron is up there in the GOAT conversation. Yeah. So for him to—

Straight up.

Like for him to come out and say like, no, I wanna play with Steph Curry, regardless of how the world may feel about that or how anyone may feel, in my opinion, that is like, that's one, number one, that's one of the ultimate signs of respect. That has to feel good. But then number two, like don't give me the laugh, I'm good. Like take me deeper into what you were really thinking when you first heard that.

But so what you just said is definitely, and like we talk about all the time with Bron, especially knowing our history and the Finals runs and all that and playing against him, there is no denying like his greatness in terms of what he can do on the court. And like sometimes you're in, even when you're playing against him, you're in awe. 'Cause it's like the way he can control the tempo of the game, the way he can dominate scoring, passing, you know, just his overall just presence and his IQ, like all that stuff. Like we all talk about it and, you have to appreciate your competition if you wanna beat 'em. 'Cause there's gotta be that, you know, as Coach would call it, the appropriate fear.

Absolutely.

But like you said, in terms of like him picking out one player that he would want besides his son that he would wanna play with, and my name comes up, it is definitely, it's surreal because I'll never be so far removed from the time like I was in Detroit playing in the Sweet 16 game. And this dude was maybe in his 4th or 5th year in the league. And he's coming to my game, like supporting and cheering and doing all that stuff. Even at the place he was at in his career as, you know, the future superstar. And like you said, Hall of Famer, potentially greatest of all time. Like the fact that we're 13 years removed and he's saying that, it's still crazy. I had a, I don't know how people knew this. He gave me a jersey when I was in high school, or sorry, when I was in college at Davidson. And I still have it on the wall at my parents' house back in Charlotte. Wow. And he wrote it like to the king of basketball in North Carolina and signed it and all that. So like, I'll never be too far removed from like where I came from in terms of this journey. So that's dope. And that's the surreal part. The other quick part is like, okay, if you take a fantasy draft and you're like building a team out and you got what Bron can do and the way that I can shoot the ball, like obviously there's like a curiosity, like what would that look like? But also there's a realism of like, that's why I said I'm good right now. It's just, you can never let your mind go from what you know is your situation. What is your moment, your time, and who I've been rocking with from day one. So that's my best answer at it. 'Cause it's fantasy, it's wild, but there's a respect and appreciation. There's a surrealness 'cause of where I came from and, and how we first interacted back when I was in college. But if this was 2K, that'd be pretty lethal.

I appreciate that answer though, because the reality is one thing that pisses me off in this entire realm of NBA players, which is, let's face it, dominated by African Americans. Is how they try to pit us against each other. You know, it's like everything him against him compared, like how is he compared to this guy?

No, they just did that to, I was walking up here and somebody, I was on TV on one of the talking head shows and it was like, who has more pressure, Kyrie or KD?

I said, what? What? Now they walk in last year. That's 15 minutes on TV. Like we talk about that.

Exactly.

Before the playing game even started. I think it's ridiculous how they try to like, and so when LeBron comes out and say like, I wanna play with Steph Curry. And the reality is all the talking heads and all of these people, they wanna try to find a way to make that controversial.

Right.

And that's not a controversial statement at all. That is saying I admire someone with my knowledge of the game. 'Cause LeBron has some of the highest knowledge when it comes to, basketball with my knowledge of the game and me understand what wins in this league, I wanna play with him because if I can take my skillset and partner my skillset with this guy's skillset, I think it'll be unstoppable. But it goes way further than that when, when it comes to us, you know, it, it doesn't go way further than that when, when, when you're dealing in all other realms of business. Yeah. But when it comes to us, it goes way further than, no, actually from a basketball standpoint, that makes all the sense in the world.

He would almost be dumb not to say that.

Like, are you outta your mind?

If you gave him a clear, a clean slate and was like, right, number one pick in the NBA draft, fantasy, whatever. Like you said, what you bring to the table, who would compliment that?

Hello? Like makes all the sense in the world.

That's a great point though.

So I mean, and I've kind of been going on this thing lately of like just the disrespect amongst us and how like I actually spoke about it. I actually, I need to get your thoughts on this too.

Before you ask, people always compare eras too, right? And they always say we're more buddy-buddy than eras of past 'cause there ain't no fights on the court. We all work out with each other. You got business crossover, friendships, like all that stuff off the court. And they always talk about like, that's ruining the game. No pun intended, sorry, Mark. That's ruining the competition on the court in terms of like, we all have, you know, these backgrounds outside of that 94 feet. Do you ascribe to that? Like this, like our era is less competitive because we're more friendly?

I think we're just way smarter. Than the eras before us. If you look at that from a, the way the game is like, if you look at the past era of basketball, they was beating each other.

Right.

Like, don't get me wrong, guys were skilled and all due respect to the guys that came before, but they were out there literally like outside of fighting, like playing the game of basketball, they were beating each other. There wasn't like much skill to that. There were guys that were skilled, but if you look around the NBA now, there's no one in the NBA that can't hit a 3-point shot. Now whether they shoot a bunch of 'em or not.

Right, right, right.

But there's no one in the NBA today that can't hit a 3-point shot. When you look at the level of the skill that we have today, it's totally different from the league when it was, or from what the league used to be. But my question to you, I made a statement about 3 weeks ago that If LeBron's breaking the scoring record. You playing 81 games next year. I'm not going to the game. I'm going to see LeBron break the scoring record. Now I want to ask you as a teammate, and I have not asked Steph this at all. We again—

Why I laugh.

We have not discussed it at all. So y'all can get the same answer I get. I actually didn't think anything of it. I didn't think anything of it until we're in Memphis last week on the day of that game and Bob calls me earlier in the day and we're just talking and he's like, hey, so help me understand when you say something like that or when you say that in particular, like do you just not care what people think? Do you not care what your teammates think? Do you like— Mm-hmm. And he like laid out all these other things that it possibly could be.

Right.

And I said, "Bob, I'm sorry, but if people in the world are dumb enough to believe that I'm going to miss my job to go watch someone else do theirs and feed their family, and this is how I feed my family." Which means if I miss my job to go watch him feed his family, I could possibly lose how I feed mine. If someone's that dumb bob to think, wow, he's actually gonna miss his game. If someone's that dumb, that's not my fault. Like, that's not my problem. I wanna know what you think when you see me make that statement.

One, I knew if that situation happened next year, there's no way in hell you would walk to me, Klay, Draymond Green, Coach Kerr, and be like, yo, I'm doing this. So that's why I didn't hit you about it. I knew there was, it was a, way of expressing how amazing that accomplishment and feat was and your respect for Bron. Two, I understand one piece of what Bob is saying in terms of if it's somebody within your family that might be, and your family is all different context in the family of our team.

Absolutely.

If somebody is gonna be, gonna have to directly answer to that for whatever reason, like there's a certain level of respect of, "Hey, you know what I meant by that," or whatever. Like, no, we can, that can be a quick conversation. Cool. But it's also an unfortunate piece of lumping it into every other soundbite that comes out of your mouth. Like, which be the polarizing. We all know who you are. And like that piece, I know that'll never change 'cause that's who you are. But it's also like, if there was ever, it highlights if there's ever any little insecurity or question of where your loyalty lies, which, okay. If you're going to that point, then you got a whole nother conversation to have.

Absolutely.

And if like, cool, we gonna have that conversation. But that's the one thing I get is like, if it's somebody within your family that you know, whatever you say, even if you still mean what you say and you're not gonna step off of it and you kind of now regret how it came out, if they're gonna have to answer to it, yeah, you have to take another step to, you know, say your part. But I didn't hit you 'cause I knew there was no way in hell Game 67 next year, LeBron is 27 points away.

It might be 2 games 'cause he might shit the bed one game. I'll be out.

He pull a Dennis Rodman right quick. I'm gonna see y'all.

I'm gonna see y'all when I see y'all. Getting back to the $44 million deal, you signed the $44. And I think what most people don't understand is, is at that time that was the going rate. You signed that deal, Ty Lawson signed that deal and give or take $2, $3, $4 million each way. DeMar DeRozan signed the same deal. Jrue Holiday signed the same deal. I think I said Ty Lawson already. Brandon Jennings signed the same. Like everyone was kind of signing that same deal. Now a year later it was the worst deal in pro sports history.

Mm-hmm.

One year later was the absolute worst deal in professional sports on your behalf. On the Warriors' behalf, the best deal.

Yeah, absolutely.

But how did you go through that knowing you're making $11 million a year, you probably should be, you should be making $25 million a year. But in the same token, if you don't sign the $44 million deal, the Warriors have to decide on whether they're gonna keep me or Klay. The Warriors are never able to sign Andre. And then in hindsight, fast forward a couple more years later.

KD.

Also not able to sign KD as well. So how were you able to go through that and see the bigger picture and know I'm gonna ultimately make my money. But right now, I mean, there was a time where I think, yeah, there was a time where I was making more money than you on, like you were the 5th or 6th highest paid player on our team.

It's all intentionality and it sounds so freaking cheesy and cliché 'cause I'm talking about it right now. But like, this is exactly how I thought. And it's like, I talked to my wife about it right before I signed. I was flying into Phoenix the day before opening night, which by the way, was probably one of the worst games to sign after signing a contract in NBA history too. We were on the road to open up in Phoenix and At the time, Larry Riley, Bob was there, my agent, and they're like, we're trying to figure out coming to a deal. And like, it was that one thing I had to just tell myself, like, one, let's look, let's keep perspective here. Like $44 million over 4 years, more money than my pops ever made in the league. 'Cause I had been around the league for 16 years watching my dad play. Like, I know how far the league has grown from when he played. And like, that's good money. I support my family. I got a lot of security. I just wanna be healthy. Like, let's just focus on that. Not what you leaving on the table, what you could have made. And then don't count anybody else's money.

Mm-hmm.

Like at the end of the day, when you sign, like that's your decision, you gonna rock with it. You hopefully have a lot more years to play this game. And I try to set that foundation for my mindset right then and there and never like negotiate with myself afterwards. Never like, second-guess, never come back to that moment like, oh, I shoulda, coulda, woulda, 'cause that's not how life works. So I had to be really intentional about it. I hate, like, that's, it sounds so simple and fairy tale because it did work out. But I do give myself credit that that was the perspective that I made sure I had and didn't wanna let anything distract me from what, you know, could have been or what I left on the table, what other situation that could have been out there. And thankfully, you know, like you said, you listed off 5 things that were kind of consequences of that. And I was still taken care of, I was still good. So that meant a lot in that moment.

Did signing a $44 million deal, which like you said, is a lot of money, but then ultimately you realize like, I'm not even making half what I should. Did that play any role into you ultimately leaving Nike and saying, I'm gonna go sign with Under Armour?

That is a great question. And yes, that is actually a fantastic, nobody's ever really put that two and two together. It was an opportunity to, I guess there's always that theme in the league when somebody's coming up with a contract extension or free agency or whatever, like do you bet on yourself?

Absolutely.

Like, what does that, do you bet on yourself? What does that mean? Right? Everybody is, you know, like a Nerlens Noel type situation. You know, you have somebody like DeAndre Ayton right now. You got guys that had good money on the table. How it works out, we'll see. Right? With that piece, like knowing I had, you know, 4 years on the court and got to survey the shoe free agency situation to just see where I was at. On that side of the, in that part of my career, like building something from scratch, taking a chance to put my fingerprint on a brand from the ground up and have a company that was gonna kind of invest behind me. That was a huge opportunity. And it was kind of going against the grain a little bit in terms of at that time, the stable, that Nike had and, you know, everybody can talk about how they do it the best and this and that. That's, you know, matter of opinion. But the fact that I got to go and, you know, get in the signature shoe game, build a brand, be able to inspire and storytell around things that are important to me. Like we're now 8, what, 9 years removed from that.

Yeah.

And I got this fricking logo on my hat and we have hopefully something that will continue to be part of the legacy for years and years and years. Years to come. That was me betting on myself. And it was, it was a fun, it's been a fun process from day one. And I don't know if I would have made that decision had, you know, things gone differently with the contract stuff.

Mm-hmm.