Steph Curry signed a four-year, $44 million Warriors extension focused on family security over maximum earnings, a deal that looked terrible a year later but worked out. He left Nike for Under Armour to build his own signature shoe brand and tell his own story rather than stay in Nike's ecosystem.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. You know, and getting back to the $44 million deal, you signed the 4 for 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. Drew Holliday 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. 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 cheesy fricking 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 signed after signing that 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. 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? Like, what does that—
Absolutely.
Do you bet on yourself? What does that mean? Right? Everybody is, you know, like a New Orleans 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, oh, 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 will continue to be part of the legacy for years and years and years and years to come. That was me betting on myself. And it was a fun, it's been a fun process from day one. And I don't know if I would've made that decision had, you know, things gone differently with the contracts though. [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
