Stephen Curry turned 37 on March 14. And looks like it was a reminder of the fact that his contract with the Golden State Warriors runs till 2027, and the 3-point magician will be 39 then. So what comes after that? Calling it a career that has seen him draining those magical shots for a staggering 4000 times? Hold on; it might not be that fast.

“I know my contract is lined up, and I’d like to outplay that, for sure,” Curry, now in his 16th season, said on 95.7 The Game just days back. So, is there any specific target in his mind? For sure. “Somebody asked me this summer, ‘What are you still playing for?’ [Number five] That’s literally the only thing you’re playing for,” Curry said. “I like where we’re at right now. I think we have what it takes to do it. But I’m not fast-forwarding to saying, ‘Oh, we’re a championship team right now’ because we have another level to get to.” But one more thing is there.

“I don’t want to be the one that’s limping up and down the court trying to keep up with the young bucks. There will be a clear sign when it’s time to hang it up. But I don’t think I’m anywhere close to that yet,” Curry had said in a December 2024 interview with The Circuit of Emily Chang. Long story short, he has to be in his element to carry on. In the latest episode of the Dubs Talk podcast, even Steph’s teammate, Draymond Green, attested to that.

“You know, he is definitely that type of person where he just not going to hold on and do the whole thing that a lot of guys do. If he not an elite level, he not gonna do it [keep playing]. Problem he has is…we win number 5 this year he got a strong chance to get 6 next year. And he not going to screw me out of six. So he has no chance of retiring because if we got a chance to get six, I’ll be out of his house every day making sure he ain’t retiring. Cause we need to go after that,” Green said on the podcast.

And it’s wholly understandable that Draymond would do that. After all, even at his age, Curry has a lot left in the tank. And Draymond believes that Curry himself will realize this if he hangs it up too early. “I think the decision will come across his mind, for like a week or two where he’ll be like, ‘Man, I did it. And then I think he’ll chill for a week or two and be like, ‘Alright, I’m doing this again. I feel too great. I’m too at the peak of my powers’,” Green said. He also gave an estimate of how long Steph can continue.

“He still has too much left to give to this game to let go now,” Green added. “He can 1000 percent play this game at the level he’s playing at for another three years until 40. I wholeheartedly believe that.” While it remains to be seen how far Steph’s career extends, the man himself had an interesting instance to draw to clarify what he does not want the end to look like.

“You don’t want to be in a situation the Lakers were in those last three years [with Bryant]. I know he came off the Achilles injury, but it was, like, they were a lottery team, and it was more just how many points can Kobe score down the stretch of his career. I don’t want to be in that scenario,” Steph had said to Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard. For context, while Kobe was a fixture in several legendary moments during his career with the Lakers, which spanned from 1996 to 2016, one might want to forget the final years.

Kobe started getting injured repeatedly after his 2013 Achilles tendon tear. During that 2013 to 2016 span, the Lakers had a miserable average of 22-60. Even when Kobe was on the court, their numbers were no good. As for Steph, there is something beyond performance that can hold him back from dragging his career too long, Green revealed.

Green’s touching conversation with Steph Curry about his family

Now we all know what a family man Stephen Curry is. He’s happily married to his high school sweetheart, Ayesha Curry, and they have 4 lovely children together. But being an elite basketball player for so many years has meant Steph has made some sacrifices. His family has borne the brunt of those. And it seems this may be why Steph may retire despite winning a fifth ring this year.

Draymond Green revealed he and Steph had a few conversations about this. “Like he said to me, he’s like, you know, when you go through these summers, you start to realize, hey, I’ve done this 18, 17 summers. How many more summers I got?…it’s never really the game…It’s missing Riley’s volleyball game.…Like I missed XY and Z with Riley. I don’t want to miss that with Kai, you know,” is what Green alleges Steph told him.

Again, it’s not hard to see why Curry would feel this way. We talked about the sacrifices he’s made for the game. But how long should he keep doing it for glory in a sport that moves so fast? Another ring will add to Steph’s legacy, sure. But he’s already among the all-time greats. So will a fifth and then a sixth ring really mean that much if it means he keeps missing important milestones in his children’s lives?

According to his conversation with Draymond, it appears Steph doesn’t feel that way. He might end up making the choice to retire to be there for his children. And more power to him if he does!