Stephen Curry sat down with Bonta Hill of NBC Sports Bay Area at Warriors camp in Hawaii and was asked about the criticism of how Golden State has built around him since the 2022 title. His answer, published Saturday, was four words long.
“I’m not an idiot.”
Read It Next to What His Owner Said
In August, on Tim Kawakami’s show, Joe Lacob said this: “I’m actually excited about our team. I don’t understand what all the negativity is about.”
Curry is 38. He played 43 of 82 games last season. The Warriors finished 37-45, tenth in the West, won a play-in game over the Clippers and then lost 111-96 to Phoenix. Jimmy Butler tore his ACL on January 19 with the team at 25-19; they went 12-26 after. Moses Moody ruptured a patellar tendon in March.
So when the owner says he does not understand the negativity and the franchise player says he is not an idiot, only one of those two men is describing the season that happened.
The Offseason Was the Whole Problem
Golden State pursued Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in the 2026 offseason. It signed none of them. Antetokounmpo is in Miami. Brown is in Philadelphia. James is in Philadelphia.
The one significant commitment of this cycle landed Saturday, the same day Curry’s interview ran: Brandin Podziemski agreed to a five-year, $110 million extension per Shams Charania. A fourth-year guard is now the organization’s biggest financial bet of the summer. Draymond Green re-signed and is expected to start. Steve Kerr is still the coach.
What Curry Actually Conceded
Not much, in words. “The jury is still out on how we end this entire journey,” he said. On last season he offered a diagnosis rather than a complaint: “Availability was the biggest theme.” On the noise around the team he was almost generous: “When we’re not [competitive], it’s loud. So embrace it.”
That is a man being careful. But “I’m not an idiot” is not a careful sentence. It is a player telling the public he can see exactly what everyone else sees and will not be managed into saying otherwise.
The Verdict
Curry has given this franchise four championships and never once negotiated like a man trying to squeeze it. The least he is owed in return is an owner who stops telling the public it is imagining things.
Availability was the biggest theme. It was not the only one.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.