Stephen Curry arrived at Warriors alone and built his most important team over 17 seasons while becoming an NBA legend
At 38, Curry is facing another enormous decision after spending nearly half his life building something much bigger than anyone could have imagined in 2009
S tephen Curry was 21 years old when the Golden State Warriors called his name with the seventh pick of the 2009 NBA Draft. He arrived without a championship, without an MVP award and without any idea that the franchise taking a chance on him would eventually become almost impossible to separate from his name. He wasn't married yet, either.
Seventeen seasons later, Curry has given Golden State four NBA championships, won two MVP awards and become the greatest three-point shooter the league has ever seen. The skinny guard from Davidson became the face of a dynasty and one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. Now, at 38, the Warriors can put another extraordinary number in front of him: a two-year extension worth as much as $136.7 million.
But that only tells half of what Curry built during those 17 seasons
In 2011, two years after the Warriors drafted him, Curry married Ayesha, the girl he had first met as a teenager. A year later, Riley was born. Curry was still three years away from winning his first NBA championship, and the little girl who would eventually steal the show at his press conferences arrived before the basketball world fully understood what her father was about to become.
Then Curry's two teams started growing almost side by side. Ryan was born in July 2015 , just weeks after Curry won his first NBA championship. Canon arrived in 2018, right in the middle of the Warriors dynasty, after Golden State had won its third championship in four seasons. And in May 2024, Caius arrived. By then, Curry had four rings, two MVP awards, a Finals MVP and virtually nothing left to prove on a basketball court.
Golden State made Curry the face of a franchise. At home, he is simply one of six
Riley is 14 now. Ryan is 11. Canon is 8. Caius, the only one who will grow up without remembering the beginning of his father's extraordinary run, is 2. Stephen and Ayesha celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary this summer.
Those ages matter because they show just how much life has happened while Curry was busy making basketball history.
The 21-year-old who arrived at Golden State in 2009 is now a husband and father of four. He has watched his oldest daughter go from sitting on his lap at press conferences to becoming a teenager. His children have watched him win championships, break records, suffer injuries, come home from road trips and get up to do it all over again.
And Curry doesn't talk about that part of his life as something secondary to basketball. Earlier this year, he called raising four children with Ayesha “beautiful chaos.” Watching four different personalities develop, he said, has been the “best gift and responsibility” of their lives.
The Warriors can offer Curry $136.7 million and the possibility of playing through age 40. For Golden State, the decision could shape the final years of the greatest player in franchise history. For Curry, those same years will also happen while Riley becomes a young woman, Ryan moves deeper into her teenage years, Canon continues growing up and little Caius begins forming the childhood memories he may one day have of his father still playing in the NBA.
None of that means Curry is ready to walk away. Basketball remains part of who he is, and he has spoken about the court still being his happy place. But at 38, time looks different than it did at 21.
When Curry arrived in 2009, Golden State gave him a jersey and a place to begin his NBA career. Over the next 17 seasons, he helped turn that team into a dynasty.
Away from the arena, he and Ayesha were building another one.
And now, as one team decides how much it is willing to give Stephen Curry for the next two years, the other one is already waiting for him at home.
