Steph Curry reveals NBA retirement plans: “I talked to Tom Brady, he’s still playing at a high level at 44”
Steph Curry has continued to impress despite being 34 years old. Despite injuries plaguing him during the 2019-20 season, Curry has shown little signs of slowing down, recently leading the Warriors to a fourth title last season in the past eight years. At the same time, Curry claimed his first Finals MVP award, an achievement that had thus far eluded him.
Going into this season, the Warriors were eager to pick up back-to-back championship wins. Currently, the team finds themselves sitting in 11th place with a record of 13-13. To put things plainly, the Warriors haven't been able to make things click during the course of the season.
Despite that, Curry maintains that he has no plans of calling it a career any time soon. He spoke during a recent interview to share some insight into his thought process in the midst of his 14th season:
"I talked to Tom Brady about how he's at the point in his career where he's still playing at a high level at 44 .... And his advice was just to take it a year at a time. There's no way to fast forward, that's not how you got to this point, so don't rush yourself to think about how you could do it. Your body will tell you and I don't see myself slowing down anytime soon."
The comments came during the arrivals at the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Awards this week, where Curry took home the main award. Below you can see the speech he gave later on in the evening while accepting the award.
How long will Steph Curry play?
With Steph Curry currently averaging 30 points per game on 49.9% from the field, 43.2% from 3 and 90.6% from the line, his abilities clearly haven't declined. Regardless of the fact that he may be past his physical prime, he's now put together back-to-back seasons with over 60 games played. During the 2020-21 season, Curry also averaged a career-high 32.0 points per game.
Given all of that, Kendrick Perkins believes Curry could very well wind up being the NBA's Tom Brady. He spoke about the situation before the start of the season:
"When you look at Steph Curry, his game is not reliant on athleticism. He’s not a guy that has to dunk the ball. He’s not a guy that has to beat you with speed. He’s a guy that beats you with craftiness, his skillset, and, most importantly, his shooting. His shooting is not going anywhere no time soon.”
If Curry does manage to remain healthy and continues to dominate the game the way he has been, he could very well play through a potential rebuild down the line. It's hard to imagine what any team in the NBA will look like nine years down the line, but that may be exactly where we find ourselves when it comes to Steph Curry.
Do you think he has what it takes to play into his mid-forties like Tom Brady? Give us your thoughts in the comments section below!