Everyone in the basketball community knows that Stephen Curry is the back-to-back MVP and is the star athlete who led the Golden State Warriors to win 70 games in a row last season. Since he's a massive superstar, it's probably safe to say that he's one of the top earners in the league, right? Well, not exactly.
In contrast, despite his current status, Curry isn't even in the NBA's top 10 highest paid players. He's not even in the top 20, top 30, or top 40. Instead, his ranking, according to salary-ranking sight Spotrac, is 79.
Players such as Ricky Rubio, Al Horford, and Timofey Mozgov, who are all good players but not on the same level as Curry, are earning more money than him. This, of course, doesn't mean that there's some type of crazy scheme in the NBA that's designed to keep Curry's numbers low.
Instead, Curry is just a victim of circumstance, according to Mashable. That's because the team's salary cap for next season increased from $70 to $94 million due to the league's new broadcast deal.
This is probably the reason why free agency was crazier this year compared to previous offseasons. With teams having more salary space, a lot of players tried to capitalize on this by attempting to get bigger deals as free agents.
Curry, on the other hand, is expected to make a little over $12 million next season. This is considerably small especially when compared to what Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal will earn next year, which is over $22 million.
That's because the last time Curry signed a contract extension was in 2012. That contract is good for four years and is worth $44 million. Aside from the fact that the NBA had a very different financial environment in 2012, the extension that Curry signed back then was only a rookie-contract. At that time, no one probably expect that he would be the massive superstar that he is today.
For Curry, though, not getting the amount of money that he's worth isn't such a big problem. As noted by the humble star, $44 million is more than enough for him and his family.
"I could've had a different perspective and said, 'I want to get everything that I could get, wait it out, test free agency next year - and who knows what would've happened?'" he told Yahoo! Sports.
"But for me, a $44 million contract was plenty for me to be able to provide for my family," he added. "When I made a decision to sign an extension, I told myself that was the right decision for the moment."
