Stephen Curry has spent most of his career making the impossible look routine, but even he couldn’t see this one coming.
A 2022 GQ interview with the Warriors star has started making the rounds again, and one passage now reads like a snapshot of a future that never arrived. Curry imagined a world five years out in which Jordan Poole had become an All-Star, Jonathan Kuminga had turned into an All-Defensive player, and James Wiseman was in the MVP conversation.
“Curry, for his part, dreams of a future five years from now where [Jordan] Poole is an All-Star, [Jonathan] Kuminga is an All-Defensive player, and [James] Wiseman is an MVP candidate,” the interview read.
At the time, the idea wasn’t absurd. Poole had been a major piece of Golden State’s 2021-22 title run and looked like a natural heir to Curry’s scoring load someday.
Kuminga flashed real upside, even if his role never seemed fully settled. Wiseman, meanwhile, remained a tantalizing bet that never quite paid off in a Warriors uniform.
But the franchise’s “two timelines” vision ended up falling apart fast.
Poole was traded a year and a half later after Draymond Green struck him in a practice before the 2022-23 season. Wiseman was dealt about a year after Curry’s interview. Kuminga was traded to the Atlanta Hawks earlier this year after never finding a permanent role with the Warriors.
And the picture has only darkened since then. Poole has become a shell of his former self, Wiseman is no longer in the NBA, and Kuminga is still unsigned in free agency.
That’s where the hindsight hits hardest. Curry’s vision was built on real promise, not fantasy.
All three players had reasons to be viewed as the next wave. Wiseman never fully broke through in Golden State, but Poole helped fuel a championship and looked like the kind of player who could carry the torch when Curry eventually stepped away.
Kuminga had his moments too, but his desire for a bigger role never lined up cleanly with Steve Kerr’s preference that he fit the team’s style rather than try to reshape it.
Joe Lacob was also heavily invested in the idea, believing Wiseman and Kuminga could help form the next great Warriors core. What he misjudged was how long Curry would keep going at this level.
Now, instead of a clean bridge from one era to the next, the Warriors are stuck in an awkward place. The roster is old, veteran-heavy, and the future of the organization feels far less certain than it did when those young players were supposed to take over.
Looking back, it’s a sharp reminder of how quickly a plan can unravel. Looking ahead, it’s fair to wonder what the next four and a half years will make of this moment.
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