Just a little over a week after co-leading USA Basketball into capturing gold at the Paris Olympics, where he dropped back-to-back big-time performances, Golden State Warriors superstar guard Stephen Curry is back in the headlines.

The two-time NBA MVP isn’t exactly one to do subtly controversial social media updates, so it’s huge whenever he does. In addition, this is about the third time in the past eight months where he’s either done or said something in the same vein, so media and fans alike are now continuing to speculate.

A mere six weeks ago, in an interview with Yahoo! Sports, the usually straight-up-to-the-bone loyal Warrior was suddenly non-committal:

“I mean, I can clearly say I want to be a Warrior for life … It’s always been my goal, and I’m saying that sitting in this chair right now, but like you said, life, and especially life in the NBA, it is a wild environment, and things change quickly.”

The Warriors have taken good care of Curry with one, rich extension after another ever since the franchise boomed 10 years ago, and as their main man in all of that, the future Hall-of-Famer deserved every penny. However, the shift in tone is obviously due to the front office’s failures, one of which is the re-signing of his longtime backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, who’s now with the Dallas Mavericks, which effectively ended the legendary ‘Splash Brothers’ tandem, and the core alongside Draymond Green.

Even before the breakup sounded like a real possibility, Curry has already expressed that changes and/or upgrades are needed. It was pretty clear since the Warriors have been trending down over the last two seasons following their 2022 title. 

The Dubs barely escaped the first round in 2023 before getting eliminated by the supposedly dysfunctional Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the conference semifinals. Then, in 2024, they got trampled in the 9 vs. 10 play-in matchup by the Sacramento Kings, 118-94, to send them home without seeing any postseason action.

To be fair, the FO did try to swing mid-season trades for Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, and Dejounte Murray, among others, in 2023-24, though none came close to fruition.

Nevertheless, here’s Steph back in January when they were three games below .500 (17-20) and just got pounded by the New Orleans Pelicans, 141-105, perhaps giving that first stern warning:

Curry has two years left in his contract and is set to make $55.7M this upcoming season, and $59.6M after that. His bank account and legacy are pretty set, and he’s basically the mayor of the Bay Area with how much love and respect he gets in the city. It’s hard to imagine he’ll truly consider wearing a different uniform.

Then again, championships are everything, and at 36 years of age (37 by March 2025), he may very well be in his last few elite years. You can’t blame him for being hungry for one more ring – another one of those will put him over LeBron James, unless…