Stephen Curry will be sidelined for a minimum of two weeks with a torn oblique muscle, the Golden State Warriors confirmed on Thursday, an unwelcome interruption to a season in which the 38-year-old has been playing some of the finest basketball of his career.
The injury was revealed by an MRI scan, and the club said its star guard will be reassessed in a fortnight. That timetable alone guarantees he misses at least six games, beginning with Friday’s trip to San Antonio — and an abdominal tear of this kind has a habit of stretching beyond the initial diagnosis.
Coach Steve Kerr did not dress it up. Asked about his level of concern, he described it as “high.”
Defying the Calendar, Again
There is a particular kind of admiration reserved in Canada for athletes who refuse to age on schedule. Hockey has produced its share of iron men, players who somehow find another gear in their late thirties while the rest of the league slows. Curry is doing the basketball equivalent, and doing it with numbers that border on the absurd.
He had scored 30 or more points in four of his previous five games before Wednesday. His 41-point outburst against Orlando on Saturday was the 77th 40-point game of his career, drawing him level with Oscar Robertson for eighth on the all-time list. More striking still, 16 of those performances have arrived after his 35th birthday — the most in NBA history.
“It’s kind of a weird one, but it does make me super proud of the work that’s gone in, especially with some injuries and all that,” Curry said. “But just the idea I can still get to a certain level, kind of feed off of that. Especially when it’s in a winning fashion like tonight where we needed all of them. I appreciate the longevity.”
Kerr had been marvelling at that longevity only a week earlier. “Work ethic and good genes. He’s been blessed with a body that has held up,” he said. “But he’s also earned that through his strength training, his conditioning, his fitness level is just off the charts. So remarkable at 38 to watch him still do what he does.”
A Backcourt Running on Fumes
The timing could scarcely be worse. Curry departed early in Wednesday’s defeat in Houston, a result that snapped an eight-game winning streak. He was visibly uncomfortable, clutching at his right side above the hip, and finished with three points in five and a half minutes.
Golden State’s guard rotation is now dangerously thin. Brandon Williams is out with a strained left hamstring. Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody are still working their way back from knee injuries sustained last season that required surgery. Second-year guard Will Richard returned on Wednesday, but is playing with a torn ligament in his left thumb.
For a team that opened the campaign with three straight losses before catching fire, the margin for error has essentially vanished. The Warriors are 1-2 in games this season when Curry either sits out or is forced off early.
The Numbers Behind the Absence
Curry is averaging 27.8 points across 10 games, a figure dented considerably by Wednesday’s brief, painful outing. He is converting 45.7 per cent of his three-point attempts — a rate that, were it to hold, would represent the best shooting percentage of his career from beyond the arc.
His value is not merely statistical. In last Thursday’s win over Miami, Curry started dreadfully — one for eight from the field, two of 10 by half-time — before erupting in the third quarter to finish with 29 points on nine-of-19 shooting, including six triples. He sat out the closing stages of the 120-100 rout, denying him a fourth consecutive 30-point game.
“One of the things that makes him so good and so special is his ability to bounce back within a game where he’s struggling,” Kerr said. “It doesn’t bother him at all. He knows how to get himself going. He’s got the ultimate confidence.”
That resilience will now be tested on a different scale. At 38, in his 18th NBA season, Curry has already weathered more than his share of interruptions. This one arrives at precisely the moment his team could least afford it.
Why it Matters
Curry remains the single biggest draw in basketball north of the border and beyond, a player whose appeal transcends the box score — and any extended absence ripples through the Warriors’ playoff hopes, the Western Conference logjam and the broader conversation about how long a small, injury-prone guard can keep bending the ageing curve. Golden State’s season does not hinge on two weeks in November, but the club’s margin is thin enough that a fortnight without its engine could shape everything that follows. For Canadian fans who measure greatness in durability as much as brilliance, watching Curry fight his body once more is both familiar and quietly sobering.
