Curry finalizes five-year $201 million extension

Guard Stephen Curry finalized his five-year, $201 million deal with the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. Another guard, Derrick Rose, finalized a one-year deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

OAKLAND, CALIF. » Stephen Curry has delivered his share of success already to a franchise that desperately needed it. Now, he’s being paid for all he has done — and certainly will do.

Curry finalized his new contract Tuesday, signing a $201 million, five-year deal with the champion Golden State Warriors that initially was the richest ever, until James Harden topped it with a $228 million extension from the Rockets.

Considered overlooked and undersized when he arrived on the NBA scene after being drafted seventh overall out of Davidson College in 2009, Curry has silenced the doubters with every spot-on heave from halfcourt.

The two-time NBA MVP, who earned $12 million this season as one of the league’s biggest bargains, averaged 28.1 points in the playoffs while also contributing 6.7 assists and 6.2 rebounds. Now, he will earn $40 million per season.

“Just happy to be a leader on this team that can understand the goals that we set out for ourselves and try to get it done the best way we could,” Curry said immediately after the Game 5 title clincher in the NBA Finals last month.

NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant also signed his new contract worth approximately $53 million over the next two years as Golden State announced its deals with returning free agents.

Sure, Durant’s spectacular postseason may have shined brighter as he hoisted his MVP hardware, yet Curry did so much on the way to his second title in three years. From his dazzling dribbling, shotmaking and the way he dishes off, Curry has been brilliant — but what he does for the Warriors as an ambassador in the community is as much a part of what makes him special.

He is the face of a franchise that has become the standard by which every other organization is measured. Curry has led the turnaround of a franchise from longtime laughingstock to regular championship contender.

Now, he wants to build a dynasty with KD by his side. Durant accepted less money for the coming season so the Warriors’ core could remain intact.

A year after breaking his own NBA record with 402 3-pointers, Curry rarely finished quarters with those jaw-dropping 3s that were so memorable from the previous season — and that was fine, because Golden State kept winning. The Warriors were sharing the ball in Kerr’s deep rotation, developing into a close-knit group.

But it wasn’t until the Warriors blew a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter of a demoralizing 109-108 loss at Cleveland on Christmas Day that Curry reached the realization he must do more.

“I learned a lot about myself,” he said. “After that Christmas Day game I kind of understood that we have such high-IQ players that if I could be aggressive, do what I do and need to do every single night, everything will kind of flow from that.

“I think the proof is obviously in what we were able to accomplish from that point on in the regular season, being 16-1 in the playoffs, everybody being the best version of themselves and putting all the puzzle pieces together.”

Rose signs with Cavs

Derrick Rose’s goal is to win an NBA championship. He’s a little closer to one.

The free-agent guard signed a one-year contract Tuesday with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that has blocked his path to a title before and one that needs him now more than ever.

Rose is getting a oneyear, $2.1 million deal the veteran’s minimum, and all Cleveland could offer from the Cavaliers, who now have a possible replacement for Kyrie Irving. Rose gives the Cavs a proven player to handle point-guard duties if they choose to trade Irving, who recently told the team he wants to be dealt. Rose is taking a substantial pay cut (he made $21.3 million last season in New York), he’s focused on one thing.

“I have a single focus and purpose of wanting to play to win,” he said.