Kevin Durant’s and Steph Curry’s windows aren’t closing just yet, but they are no longer infinite either.
LOS ANGELES — As Stephen Curry gets set for another postseason run, one that starts Wednesday night against the LA Clippers in the Play-In Tournament, he does so with an appreciation for the journey that has brought him here.
The 38-year-old Golden State Warriors guard doesn’t know exactly how much longer he wants to play, but after 17 years in the league, he knows this much: the finish is much closer than the beginning.
He’s not alone.
More than 1,500 miles away in Houston, Kevin Durant is feeling it too. At 37 and in his 18th season, the Houston Rockets star is similarly unsure about how much longer he’ll go. What he does know is that his appreciation — for what he and the other stars of his era have accomplished — is greater than ever before.
For Curry and Durant, the start of a new postseason isn’t just a new opportunity to play on the game’s biggest stage, it’s a reminder of just how long they’ve been here — and how rare it is to still be playing at all.
“I bet you everybody has a different take on that,” Curry told The Athletic when asked what it’s been like to be in the rarefied air that he has occupied with Durant and LeBron James for so long. “Mine is I played against KD in AAU when I was 9. I was in Charlotte and he was in the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia metropolitan region). There’s always that joke, he thought I was a little White kid because he didn’t know who I was, just a little shooter. That’s his favorite joke.
“And that was, what, ’97, ’98? So think about how long that is. I don’t know how to wax poetic any more than that.”
The shared history is why these moments matter more. There’s an extra pull before tip-off to say hello, exchange a few words and embrace. Their window isn’t closing just yet, but it’s no longer infinite either.
“I’m just so grateful that I graced the league with these guys at the same time,” Durant told The Athletic. “Because we’ve competed so hard against one another for so long, and then when you get older you start appreciating how hard it is to get up every day. You got aches and bruises sometimes, you don’t even know where they come from.”
While the spotlight centers around Curry, Durant and James — the figureheads of the league for close to two decades now — Durant is quick to point out other stalwarts too. Players like Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan, James Harden, DeAndre Jordan and Taj Gibson have carved out similar longevity.
Curry and Durant aren’t just motivated by the next generation of young players coming into the league, it’s also each other.
“You see guys get up with that much energy every day, you get inspired and want to do the same thing,” Durant said. “LeBron has been pushing me since he turned 37, 38. And he’s setting a new standard for older guys in the league. And so with Steph, he’s (38), I feel like he got quicker and faster. James (Harden), after he left Brooklyn he turned it up a notch when he got to the Clippers. Russ, still look good coming off the bench.
“So seeing these dudes makes me want to go to the gym and work on my game and keep going.”
Curry understands that feeling well. What began as matchups between boys has developed into games between men who have become two of the greatest players to ever play the sport.
“One hundred percent,” Curry said. “You know whether you played with them, or against them the whole time, obviously both with K, what it takes to maintain that level for as long as we have. There’s just a brotherhood of respect, appreciation, that the animosity over the years, the competition has kind of allowed us to now experience, which is really amazing. I think we all know it in the back of our mind. I’ve said it for a long time.
“It’s OK to acknowledge that it’s gonna end at some point, but we all know that it’s on the horizon. We’re all trying to extend it as long as we can.”
It’s one of the main reasons Curry pushed so hard to return from a lingering knee injury late in the season rather than shut it down. That’s because games like these — games that carry importance — aren’t guaranteed anymore.
It’s the same force that motivates Durant and continues to push him to get out of bed each morning. In our conversation in March, it was clear he still loves the game as much as he ever did, but he pushes back on the notion that his love of the game is any different than any other player that has been at or near his level. It’s universal.
“Once you reach a certain level of talent, longevity, we all love the game the same way,” Durant said. “I really tell people I love it this way, you may see me outwardly loving the game, showing up, talking to young players, dudes when I’m on the court, but every great player I’ve been around loves the game like that.”
What separates those who last, Durant notes, is mental toughness, and what happens when the novelty wears off.
“The younger guys, it’s a little easier to love the game when you’re fresh in,” Durant said. “But when you’ve seen it all, when you’re 10, 12, 13, 14 years in and you’ve taken a peek behind the curtain and see the politics of the game, you see all the other stuff that surrounds the game, it’s not just about basketball, and you still love it? You know what I’m saying? You go through injuries, you go through tough times, losses, wins and you still want to come in and be the best player you can be, that’s true love.”
As Curry left the visitors’ locker room at Golden 1 Center last week, he was trying to put into context what he’s feeling as the group he grew up with gets closer to the finish line. He landed on an imperfect, but telling metaphor.
“It’s a horrible reference,” Curry said. “But in Coming to America 2, a horrible movie, there was a living funeral. Where people were celebrating the king before he had passed, and that’s what he wanted. I don’t think any of us want that, but it’s kind of like our way, a small way, of giving each other flowers, because we know how hard it is to carry this weight that we have for our whole careers.”
There’s no secret handshake when the greats of the game see each other on the floor these days. There doesn’t need to be. They recognize the faces. They are the same ones they’ve been seeing on every floor for years.
And they are the ones they’ll miss the most when their time on the game’s biggest stage finally runs out.
“It’s appreciation,” Curry said. “Your success, failures, experiences and all that are all lived in a silo. It’s because of other people’s greatness that help you and motivate you and inspire you and frame all of your career. That’s a big part of it. Because you have to compete deep, lose to said people for years and years and years to make what you have accomplished great. I think we’ve all had our licks too.”
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Nick Friedell is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the Golden State Warriors and the NBA. Nick spent 14 years at ESPN covering the NBA, most notably as a reporter as well as a TV and radio commentator. He is a graduate of The Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Follow Nick on X @NickFriedell.
