CURRY BECOMES FIRST $200M PLAYER IN NBA HISTORY
J.J. Redick is trusting the process. Gordon Hayward got his sales pitch from Miami. And David West, finally a champion, is coming back for one last season.
The first day of NBA free agency Saturday saw things starting to take shape, though there’s still dozens of more moves to come in the next few days. After an opening flurry that saw Stephen Curry get a $201 million deal from the NBA champion Golden State Warriors and Blake Griffin take about $175 million to stay with the Los Angeles Clippers, most teams started to look at names more within their price range.
Redick agreed to a $23 million, one-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. West is going back to the Warriors on a veteran’s minimum, which is now worth $2.3 million. And Detroit got some solid insurance at point guard, agreeing with Langston Galloway on a three-year deal.
But all that, of course, was overshadowed by Curry’s deal—the biggest contract in NBA history.
“Steph should be getting 400M this summer,” Cleveland star LeBron James tweeted.
The rules, for now, only allow for Curry to get half of that.
Curry spent the last four seasons playing on a four-year, $44 million contract that he signed when there were doubts about the health of his ankles.
With nearly $1 billion in deals agreed to just in Day 1 of this year’s free agency period, there is still obviously no shortage of money out there.
Jrue Holiday agreed to return to New Orleans for $126 million over five years; Patty Mills is returning to San Antonio for the next four years at $50 million; and Jeff Teague agreed with Minnesota on a three-year, $57 million deal.