SAN FRANCISCO – Steph Curry, wearing his iconic No. 30 jersey at Chase Heart, fielded questions on a teammate who was conspicuously absent from the Warriors’ media day festivities on Monday.
Jonathan Kuminga, the previous No. 7 choice within the 2021 NBA Draft, has remained in limbo this summer time, a restricted free agent who has but to signal the $7.9 million qualifying provide tendered to him in June. Kuminga has till 8:59 p.m. PT on Wednesday, the day after coaching camp begins, to simply accept.
Curry, 37, made it identified that neither he nor fellow veteran leaders Jimmy Butler or Draymond Inexperienced, held any in poor health will towards the 22-year-old who’s in search of a brand new contract and a much bigger function.
The truth is, they, together with their teammates, count on him to be in coaching camp sooner quite than later.
“I don’t see no problem in it, you know,” mentioned Gary Payton II, who re-signed with the group Monday. “Get back, get to practice. Get back to what we were doing. I didn’t see anything different.”
Kuminga averaged 15.3 factors per recreation final season, however struggled to seek out constant taking part in time after coming back from a extreme ankle damage in March.
He and his agent, Aaron Turner, have been vocal about needing a featured offensive function on no matter group Kuminga performs for.
“We’ve all been around long enough to know how to separate the business of it from the basketball of it,” Curry mentioned of himself, Inexperienced and Butler. “Those are two totally different areas.”
Was it enterprise as regular? Not fairly. However Curry didn’t appear phased by the scenario.
“I think everything we do around here is unique for sure,” Curry mentioned, later including. “Us being realistically championship related for this lengthy is exclusive. Us attempting to take care of that for so long as we have now is exclusive, and JK’s scenario is exclusive.“
The scenario could have been deemed “uncommon,” however describing Kuminga’s contract negotiations as strictly enterprise was a typical chorus parroted by numerous Warriors gamers.
“The other side of basketball, being a business of it, it’s kind of personal to an extent,” Moses Moody, additionally picked within the 2021 draft class, mentioned. “It’s not really on me to get into and discuss.”
Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Inexperienced (23) is photographed throughout NBA Media Day at Chase Heart in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Space Information Group)
Amongst those that echoed that sentiment was Inexperienced, who started his press convention carrying glasses that learn “BOOM” and proceeded to talk emphatically about his teammate.
“I do think he still wants to be here, and he said that to me, that he still wants to be here,” Inexperienced mentioned.
Are there any laborious emotions towards the negotiations lasting into the beginning of coaching camp? Not an opportunity.
“He’s got to do what he’s got to do for himself,” Inexperienced mentioned. “This is a business and I think that’s what you always have to understand.”
As a 14-year veteran, the ability ahead believed there was nothing uncommon about what’s going on between Kuminga and the Warriors. He famous that each he and 10-year veteran Kevon Looney every had related negotiations with the franchise as younger gamers, and that didn’t cease them from changing into key contributors to championship groups.
“It’s one side trying to get the better of the other side, and when you’re trying to do that, just like in a basketball game, tempers flare,” Inexperienced mentioned. “Things get heated. Sometimes people get kicked out of the room. Sometimes people walk back in the room. That’s just how it goes.”
Butler was in lockstep along with his veteran teammates.
“I know what that is like,” Butler mentioned. “I’ve been in this league going on 15 years now. It will get handled and I know that both sides will be happy in the end.”
Although Kuminga has not made any public feedback since free company started, Turner has launched into a media tour on his consumer’s behalf.
“You don’t get a perfect deal, but you get a pretty good deal and he gets to feel respected about what he gets and we all move on and worry about winning, helping Steph,” Turner mentioned on a latest ESPN podcast.
Curry declared that he didn’t pay any consideration to such feedback, even people who pertain to him as he tries to win one other title.
“I only listen to my teammate,” Curry mentioned. “I don’t listen to agents or anybody speaking on behalf. I (will) hear that from JK.”
Each participant who spoke about Kuminga over the course of the four-hour occasion mentioned they wished him to be again for a season that begins on Oct. 21 in Los Angeles in opposition to the Lakers.
“These things happen,” Inexperienced mentioned. “You move on from them. If he signs a contract, comes out and plays great, everybody will forget and move on. That’s the world we live in.”
