GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 15, 2025

Steph Curry

Media Conference

Q. What was it like to sit and watch that? TV did catch a grimace of yours at one point. What was going through your mind?

STEPH CURRY: It's tough, man. That's a first for me. Obviously every season ends in some way, shape, or form. We've had four years where it's ended great for us, and other times you leave it all out on the floor and give whatever you have to try to make the Playoffs or keep your season alive or whatever it is, and to sit on the sidelines, it's weird. You wish you were out there to be able to do something about it. But it just wasn't in the cards this year.

We gave a great effort the last -- since February to give ourselves a chance, and have been up here talking about it since then, and every game since. All we wanted was a chance, and to finish the year like we did, to sneak in the Playoffs and win that first round, there's a lot to be proud of for sure, considering where we were.

But definitely disappointed, and frankly just sad that I wasn't out there able to play. We have hopefully a bright future in terms of coming back next year and trying again.

Q. In the interest of off-season torture and what could have been, how close would you say you were to playing?

STEPH CURRY: Everything was kind of aligned for Game 6. I had some testing to do, and who knows how that would have went because I haven't gone live since Game 1.

First time dealing with this injury. I was pretty optimistic, but there were a couple more checkpoints to get through. But it's the great what-if.

Q. What's your summer look like as far as how restful you want it to be?

STEPH CURRY: I mean, we've got, what, four months? I don't have any Olympics and it's going to be just about rebuilding -- one, getting rest, like you said, getting away from the game a little bit, and then rebuilding everything for another great run.

I'm going to take full advantage of the off-season knowing I've been playing a lot of basketball for the last year, and a lot left in the tank to prepare for, so I'm excited about it.

Q. Do you view this as like a two-year window? You have two years left on your contract. Is that how you're viewing it?

STEPH CURRY: Yes, but also I'm just looking forward to next year. As this league reminds you, you see teams that are still alive, you see the injuries that have happened, unfortunately, and nothing is guaranteed in terms of you being competitive or being a contender.

Yeah, our contracts are all -- me, Draymond, Steve, Jimmy, all two years, and we want this ride to last as long as possible. But it's just about what does this team need for next year, answering those questions over the summer, everybody preparing themselves individually to get through another 82-game season hopefully with a little bit more of a comfort room down the stretch where we don't have to have a two-month gauntlet just to make the Playoffs.

That's all I'm really focused on right now. I'm excited about it because there's clarity, although there are a lot of decisions that need to be made over the summer.

Q. Steph, you've said a couple times during this postseason, if you told me in January, we'd take it, of where you are. Does knowing where you were when it felt kind of hopeless and a little bit lost, does that ease the feeling of this kind of gut punch?

STEPH CURRY: Not right now, no, but it'll give us optimism coming into next year. When September rolls around and there's 29 teams that ended their year disappointed in some way, shape or form who are excited about making a charge like we want to be as confident as possible coming into next year, and I think that window where we were 20 -- whatever our record was down the stretch, that meant something. That was real.

I got hurt in Game 1; obviously that changed a lot. But we have a lot to be, again, proud of and a lot to build off of for next year.

We've got to maintain that optimism.

Q. The way you guys were playing come out of that Game 7 and then in that Game 1 you were playing well, everyone was playing well. Even when you went down, the rest of the team still won that game. Do you wonder how far you guys could have gone had you been able to stay healthy? Steve said he had no doubt in his mind that you guys had a shot, that you guys could have gone all the way.

STEPH CURRY: You obviously have that mindset. That's the story you're going to tell yourself when you lay your head down on the pillow every night for the next couple weeks until whoever wins the championship because that's the belief that we did have.

But again, this league it's hard to win. You have to have things go your way. I know I mentioned we've been on the other side of it where guys have missed for whatever reason teams we played against, and that's part of winning at the highest level. You have to have health. You have to good fortune. You have to have the ball bounce your way down the stretch in certain games.

That's why people watch every night, because it's unpredictable. It's why there's such highs and lows emotionally because you know how fragile winning really is.

Yeah, disappointed for sure. We'll imagine and believe that we could have won everything had we been healthy. But you move on.

Q. You guys' ages are obviously a talking point, but what makes you most confident in you, Draymond and Jimmy being the right core for this team moving forward?

STEPH CURRY: I think just you look at the sample size the last two months and even the Houston series when we had our mind focused on a goal, we had enough to accomplish it and get to a point where we were playing pretty high-level basketball. Does that mean we can win a championship? We hope so.

That's really all you want is a fighter's chance. You look at the league right now, I know there's a lot of youth taking over, but we were one of the last eight teams that realistically had a shot, and if you can run that back, make some tweaks that can help our overall roster -- obviously you've got to got through an 82-game season, like I said, and you want to be in a position where you're not chasing, but I feel like we had enough that we showed we could be that team. That's all you really want.

Q. You mentioned the tweaks. What do you think this roster needs?

STEPH CURRY: I don't know. I'll think about that over the summer. It's still fresh. I know that's the best question you get asked right after the season. It's also intriguing because I love every guy in that locker room. I love the commitment to our mission.

I love the vibe, the energy, the chemistry, the camaraderie. I know there's a lot of turnover and change every year in every locker room and you hate to see guys go and whatnot, but every team has to get better, and they have to address that, and I think from Joe to Mike to Steve, our veteran leaders, we'll all have those conversations and try to answer those questions the best that we all can and hopefully make moves that make our team better. That's what the name of the game is.

Q. Kuminga is the player whose future is probably most uncertain with restricted free agency. What's your big-picture view of his four years here and his potential future or non-future here?

STEPH CURRY: I think he's grown a lot. He's been dealt a very tough hand, to be honest. Came in when we were -- started 18 and whatever, 2 that year. He had some moments, but getting in the Playoffs didn't really have an opportunity, and then we win a championship and run it back.

He's handled his business in terms of just getting better, just trying to focus on what it means to become a better version of himself and the way that he plays.

The fact that he's had playing time and hasn't and been in the rotation and hasn't, that's tough for any player, let alone a young guy who's trying to figure it out in the league. So I commend him on just staying ready. Seeing what he did the last couple games, that's not easy to do to not know if your number is going to be called and then go out and perform.

I'm proud of the way he's handled it. I hope the future is bright for him, whether it's here, whether it's wherever, and knowing that he's a guy in this league that can continue to climb that ladder on his own pace.

I think he's going through a lot that most people haven't in four years and seen a lot. Hopefully he's better because of it.

Q. Last off-season a ton of stuff happened and you guys went big-game hunting, Paul George, Markkanen, you lose Klay. How different do you feel going into this? Do you feel like you could be big-game hunting, or is it not as necessary given what you did getting Jimmy, going 24 and all those things? Is it a marked difference from say last off-season going into this one?

STEPH CURRY: Yeah, there's a little bit more clarity on what we have. Jimmy being a big part of that. There are obviously guys in this league if for whatever reason become available, every team is going to call. That's just how it works, whether stuff happens or not. More times than not, it doesn't.

But we have clarity on what we have in terms of our core and experience, but we do know we need to probably get a little bit bigger across the board. We struggle shooting at times. Those can be addressed, but how you get to that I think is what Mike is going to have to figure out. We've got confidence that he can do it.

I like the vibe that we have a little bit more clarity, a little bit more understanding of what me, Jimmy, Draymond have been able to do this last, whatever, three months, and try to make a few tweaks and make it as good as possible.

Q. You're 37; did you know that?

STEPH CURRY: I've heard it a couple times this year.

Q. When you're outside of work, that's a young man's age. When you're at work you get those reminders that you are one of the oldest guys in the league. How are you feeling about that difference outside of work, inside of work, and your age being mentioned in pretty much every story about you from here on out?

STEPH CURRY: One, it's an ultimate compliment because it's part of the level that you're playing at. Like oh, he's still doing it at this age.

Two, it's a reminder of your basketball mortality and appreciating every moment that you have. That's why the way this ended was emotional as it was, not being able to play in those big games because you don't know how many more opportunities you will have.

But I think the difference on and off the court, like seeing my family and seeing my kids grow and opportunities off the court, it allows me to just have fun and appreciate this chapter of my life as much as possible, knowing that hopefully the next chapter is as great, but this one I'm trying to get every bit of fun and experience and squeeze as much juice out of this as possible.

It's weird to -- you get it from your teammates even. I remember watching you in such-and-such a game when I was seven. None of that stuff -- it is weird. It's hard to kind of digest it. But it allows me to make sure I'm having as much fun as possible doing what I love to do and how long I've been able to do it and this last chapter of my career, getting everything I can out of it.

Q. Looking back at these last three months and since Jimmy got here, was it above and beyond maybe what you expected in terms of how seamless it was or about what you thought could be when he joined you guys? It seemed like everything just clicked immediately. That says something about the whole group, doesn't it?

STEPH CURRY: Absolutely. There was a lot of chatter whether that was the right trade or not when it happened. You all know we were in Utah and the trade went down, like we were emotional in that period because we saw three guys who we loved -- Wiggs being a part of our championship run having to go.

But from the first game in Chicago to last night, it was a seamless fit. Me and him complemented each other so well. He gave us so much belief that we could beat anybody any given night and make a legitimate run at climbing up the standings and even having some playoff experience to look forward to.

I think it was a success, and now you have to build off of that with a full season hopefully in front of us. I'm excited about it.

Q. To feed off some of those off-season plans, another basketball team is here tomorrow night, the Valkyries. Do you have a plan to be an ambassador, to be there, to be involved with that team this off-season?

STEPH CURRY: I'm going to be a fan, yeah. I'm going to be at as many games as possible. It's great for the entire Bay, the inaugural season. I know the atmosphere is pretty cool when they had a preseason game here.

I'm excited to watch them play and wish them nothing but success. Yeah, it's going to be really cool to be here opening night when they get to kind of plant their flag of what Valkyrie basketball means around here, so I'm pretty excited to watch it.