Stephen...
to be. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be happy about that for him.”
Also gone are veterans Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, guard Quinn Cook and big man Demarcus Cousins. Meanwhile, the Warriors have added a handful of new faces like D’angelo Russell, Willie Cauley-stein and Glenn Robinson III. Draymond Green got a new four-year deal earlier this month worth close to $100 million. Kevon Looney resigned, too.
As Klay Thompson works back this season from surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee that he injured in the deciding Game 6 loss of the finals to the Toronto Raptors, Curry’s backcourt mate will be Russell.
At 31, Curry doesn’t mind that he will be the quote-unquote old guy entering his 11th NBA season. A two-time NBA MVP, he has reached five straight NBA Finals.
“Has it sunk in? No. Have people been reminding me? Yes, any time they bring up our team looking forward,” he said with a smile. “It’s cool though, hopefully I’m wise beyond my years but still youthful in what I can do on the floor. It’s just a change in dynamic all the way around. We’re excited about the opportunities, the challenges for the whole roster, because we’ve got a lot of guys that have the opportunity to really prove themselves and make a difference in our team. Obviously our core, ’til Klay gets back, we know how to win and we know how to play. We’re just going to do it a little differently.”
Curry is unconcerned at this stage about outside expectations regarding how good this group might be and speculation that these Warriors may not be a championship contender.
“I know the reality of the situation in terms of we lost a guy like Kevin Durant, who’s an all-time great basketball player,” Curry said. “We lost two veteran high-iq guys in Shaun and Andre that really were like the cogs in the wheel that kept us going and you could rely on them every single game. So, the look is different but nobody really has a sustained run like we did where every year you’re expected to be the greatest. It’s just a matter of now we have to, I wouldn’t even say prove people wrong, but we have to kind of galvanize the new roster and do the exact same thing.”
As he told the female campers all sporting his No. 30 jersey, first things first.
Curry took a quick poll of how many had started school again. Dozens of hands shot into the air.
“Great to see you all again! You all having a great day, too?”
Collective: “Yeah!”
“New beginnings, right? We’re going to take care of our school work this year?” Curry asked. “We’re going to be very dedicated and hardworking in the classroom as we are on the basketball court? That’s very important to be well-rounded people, right? Athletes and academics.”/ap