Stephen Curry was 21 when the Golden State Warriors selected him with the seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft. He arrived without an NBA championship, an MVP award or any idea that the franchise taking a chance on him would eventually become nearly inseparable from his name. He was not married yet, either.
Seventeen seasons later, Curry has led Golden State to four NBA championships, won two MVP awards and become the greatest three-point shooter in league history. The slender guard from Davidson became the face of a dynasty and one of the world’s most recognizable athletes. Now, at 38, the Warriors can place another extraordinary figure in front of him: a two-year contract extension worth as much as $136.7 million.
Stephen Curry built a basketball dynasty and a family
That contract figure tells only half the story of what Curry has built during his 17 seasons with Golden State.
In 2011, two years after the Warriors drafted him, Curry married Ayesha, whom 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 spotlight at his press conferences arrived before the basketball world fully understood what her father was about to become.
Curry’s family grew alongside his basketball career. Ryan was born in July 2015, just weeks after Curry won his first NBA championship. Canon arrived in 2018, in the middle of the Warriors dynasty, after Golden State had won its third title in four seasons. In May 2024, Caius was born. By then, Curry had four rings, two MVP awards, a Finals MVP and virtually nothing left to prove on the court.
Golden State made Curry the face of its franchise. At home, he is simply one of six.
Riley is now 14, Ryan is 11, Canon is 8 and Caius, the only child too young to remember the beginning of his father’s extraordinary run, is 2. Stephen and Ayesha celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary this summer.
Those ages show how much of life has unfolded while Curry was making basketball history.
The 21-year-old who arrived in Golden State in 2009 is now a husband and father of four. He has watched his oldest daughter grow from a child sitting on his lap at press conferences into a teenager. His children have seen him win championships, break records, deal with injuries, return home from road trips and get up to do it all again.
Curry does not describe that part of his life as 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.
Warriors extension could cover Curry’s final NBA seasons
The Warriors can offer Curry $136.7 million and the chance to play through age 40. For Golden State, the decision could shape the final seasons of the greatest player in franchise history. For Curry, those years will also unfold as Riley becomes a young woman, Ryan moves further into her teenage years, Canon continues to grow up and Caius begins forming the childhood memories he may one day have of his father still playing in the NBA.
That does not mean Curry is ready to retire. Basketball remains part of his identity, and he has said the court is still 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 transform the team into a dynasty.
Away from the arena, he and Ayesha were building another one.
Now, as one team decides how much it is willing to invest in Stephen Curry for the next two years, the other is already waiting for him at home.
