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Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry to sign lucrative four-year extension with Warriors

Two-time NBA MVP and three-time champion Stephen Curry has agreed to a four-year, $215 million contract extension to remain with the Golden State Warriors through 2026, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Curry is also owed $45.8 million in the 2021-22 campaign, the final year of the five-year, $201 million deal he signed in July 2017. He will become the first player in NBA history to sign two $200 million contracts. The 33-year-old's latest contract extension will guarantee his career earnings reach at least $470 million.

Depending on whether or not 41-year-old Udonis Haslem returns to the Miami Heat for a 19th season, Curry could become the longest-tenured active player on any team this year. Drafted seventh overall by the Warriors in 2009, Curry is signed through a 17th season in Golden State, potentially following the footsteps of legends like Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki, who spent their entire careers in one city.

Curry is an anomaly in the NBA's player movement era. Bradley Beal and Damian Lillard are the only other veteran superstars still on their original teams, and both are subject to trade speculation. Curry has largely avoided the rumor mill, other than the occasional weak link to his hometown Charlotte Hornets, mostly because he transformed the Warriors into perennial title contenders before the end of his rookie extension.

Bouncing back from a hand injury that cost him all but five games during the 2019-20 season, Curry led the league in scoring this season for the first time since his legendary unanimous MVP season five years earlier. He averaged a career-high 32 points (on 48/42/92 shooting splits), adding 5.8 assists and 5.5 rebounds in 34.2 minutes per game, leading the Warriors to a play-in berth and a near-upset of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Curry placed third in MVP voting behind Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, his sixth top-six finish in his last seven healthy seasons. Of course, after leading the Warriors to a title in 2015 and 73 regular-season wins in 2016, he shared his spotlight with Kevin Durant at the peak of his career, birthing two more championships.

Curry's legacy is secure as the greatest shooter in the history of the game. Five times a player has made 300 3-pointers in a season, and Curry accounts for four of them. (James Harden is the other.) Curry's career 3-point percentage of 43.3 is seventh all-time, first among players who have attempted more than 2,000. (He has taken 6,540.) He trails Ray Allen's career record of 2,973 made 3-pointers by only 141. Curry will shatter that standard if healthy this coming season and put it miles in his rearview before he calls it quits.

Durant's free-agency departure in 2019, coupled with Draymond Green's decline and injuries that have cost Splash Brother Klay Thompson each of the last two seasons, Curry's Warriors have landed in the last two lotteries, picking up a trio of promising prospects in the process. Whether James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody stick around long enough to see Curry's contract through is another question.

Stephen Curry will become the first NBA player to sign two $200 million contracts. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
Stephen Curry will become the first NBA player to sign two $200 million contracts. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images) (MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images via Getty Images)

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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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