The monetary sacrifices of Kevin Durant has been well documented this summer. Durant took nearly $10 million less than the maximum salary he could have received this upcoming season and allowed Bob Myers to bring back Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, though at a steep cost in luxury taxes.
Part of the reason the Warriors are so far into the luxury tax is because one player in particular, Steph Curry, didn’t take any less than he could have. After spending four years as a massively underpaid superstar, Curry cashed out last month on a super-max deal worth more than $200 million. But in a recent interview with The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson, Curry revealed that he did ask Myers and the rest of the Golden State front office if he could do anything financially to help keep the team together.
According to Thompson, Curry was assured his deal wasn’t interfering with the roster construction.
“I actually asked Bob,” he said. “If I were to take a discount — at any number, I don’t know what it would be — how much of a difference would that make for us to be able to sign other guys. It wasn’t like (Kevin Durant’s) situation. His had a direct impact on us being able to sign Andre (Iguodala) and Shaun (Livingston). And it was just an unbelievable sacrifice by KD. But mine didn’t matter.”
Curry’s Bird rights that Golden State had allowed the team to go over the salary cap to re-sign a player who’d been with them for at least three seasons. Because Durant was only with the Dubs for one season, his salary had to come in under the cap for Golden State, and his $25 million number for next season did just that.
So although Durant is the one to thank for giving the Warriors cap flexibility this offseason, it’s not as if Curry wouldn’t have done the same. Add another member of the Dubs to the list of selfless players who help the machine run.