Stephen Curry: ‘You don’t want to be in a situation the Lakers were in those last three years with Kobe Bryant’

In speaking about the move, Pelinka noted that the level of trust between himself and Harrison allowed for them to slowly work through all potential issues as they popped up. “Yeah this all started with a coffee in Dallas, where Nico approached us with the concept,” Pelinka said. “And because there was a partnership and a history of traveling the world between Nico and myself, working around Kobe Bryant, there was a fabric of trust in the discussions. And these type of deals are incredibly intricate and complicated. And along the way, we knew there would be 248 insurmountable snags to get to the end. And there were. “And so over the course of three weeks, call it, an issue would come up, and we’d think there was no way to climb the mountain, and we’d figure out a way. Then the next issue would come up. And you just keep going, and you keep going and you stay committed to the work. You stay committed to trying to get the deal done in a partnership sense. I think a lot of people talk about negotiations in terms of who won and who lost. I try to approach important negotiations in the sense of how do we build a partnership where we can get to the end? And I think that was the lens that we worked and the premise we worked under. -via Lakers Nation / February 11, 2025

“It’s surreal because … I grew up a Kobe fan, huge Kobe fan, so I was automatically a Laker fan,” Reaves said. “So just to be able to, put the uniform on and go out there and compete and then, like you said, to have a couple of those games to where my name’s in with those guys is special. “It’s something that I won’t take for granted, but, yeah, I know it really looks weird when you see my name up there.” -via Los Angeles Times / February 9, 2025

Blake Griffin: “You’ll never take LA away from the Lakers, you guys get it. There was a good stretch of like the Lakers kind of being pretty down and like him getting hurt and stuff but like dude, Kobe was… In LA he is God. He’s untouchable. I don’t know how to describe it. The first time I actually met him I was doing rehab I got hurt in my first year, I was doing rehab and the lady who was doing my rehab was his like PT and so I’m sitting there in the PT clinic and I remember kind of just like sitting there, I had like heat you know, you do ice and heat to start, and I’m sitting there and I kind of like look up and like the energy in the room shifted. Like a big energy has changed and I was just like’s what’s going on everybody got a little quiet and I look over and Kobe’s like standing at the door and I was just like oh this is different. Everywhere he went it was just like… It was like seeing God.” -via YouTube / February 9, 2025

“I didn’t go in there thinking I was talking about the All-Star Game,” Curry said of stopping into Silver’s office for a chat last offseason. “I know because we were hosting, and because it was in the Bay, he wanted my input. But I wanted to talk about something else. And then that kind of came up as just to be like a sounding board. He didn’t have any ideas at the time. … My advice was: It’s not a bad thing to change it up entirely and try something new, knowing that you could always come back to the traditional format if whatever you decide doesn’t work. “And then spitballing a bunch of different ideas to try to shorten the game a little bit. Create a different kind of scenario where you can try to inspire some competition. Obviously, it comes down to the players, whether you play or not. But I like where it’s at. It’s going to be different. It’s going to be critiqued. And that’s kind of what you want.” -via San Francisco Standard / February 14, 2025

Stephen Curry was the first one here, arriving more than a year before Lacob and Guber bought the team. Other than the owners, he’s probably going to be the last member of the dynasty standing, and he’ll continue to say goodbyes along the way. Then he’ll have his own. “You think about that more and more,” Curry said. “I’m not at the farewell yet. That’s just part of time. If you’re fighting human nature or fighting the inevitable in that, then … I don’t think you’re handling it right. Because you need a little bit of fear of what’s coming, what an end might look like, to inform decisions that you’re making now and appreciate what’s going on right now.” -via San Francisco Standard / February 14, 2025

“My whole thing is, you have to be realistic. There’s probably not a move or a scenario where you’re gonna walk into a season or a playoff series as the perennial favorite. There’s just a lot of talent around the league. But to be competitive, where you have a chance — that’s what we want to see. I’m sure that’s what our fans want to see. Playing meaningful games, no matter how it ends. I think that’s what we deserve, and I hope that is the reality I get to live in this last part of my career.” The end is coming. He’s not fighting it. But Curry isn’t going to let it happen quietly. -via San Francisco Standard / February 14, 2025