Stephen Curry agreed to a two-year, $116 million extension with the Warriors on Friday, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania, and the number that matters is the one he left on the table. A max extension would have paid more. Curry took less anyway, betting security and a Golden State jersey through age 39 over whatever a bidding war might have produced. Same weekend, the Bulls sent Rob Dillingham to Charlotte for Buddy Hield, the NBA's other kind of transaction, a young lottery pick traded for a 33-year-old three-point specialist because somebody in Chicago decided the timeline needed adjusting. Curry decided his own timeline instead. Nobody traded him for anything.

Here is the part the extension quietly settles: Golden State's front office spent a decade paying market rate to keep a core together, and Curry just told them market rate is negotiable when the player is the market. He could have forced a max number out of Joe Lacob's checkbook. He signed for less, which is the rarest kind of leverage in professional sports, the kind a player uses against himself. Warriors ownership gets a discount on the best shooter alive and a guarantee he retires in the building. Curry gets to skip the version of his story where a superstar's last contract becomes a farewell tour negotiated in a different city. The Splash Brothers never had to test what a bad breakup looks like. Turns out the highest price Curry could set was the one he refused to charge.