Butler Hints at Good News Amid Kuminga-Warriors Drama
Golden State Warriors star Jimmy Butler expressed confidence Monday that the franchise and restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga would eventually reach an agreement, drawing from his own experience navigating a contract standoff.
“Like, I tell everybody who asks me, not even from the media, just random people, my friends, I’m not in on it, you know? I hope it gets resolved,” Butler told reporters
Butler’s comments come as he draws on his own experience last season, when his contract impasse with the Miami Heat ultimately led to his trade to Golden State. He encouraged patience, saying both the player and the team want the same outcome: a resolution that benefits everyone.
Kuminga Holds Out, Leveraging Qualifying Offer
Kuminga, 22, continues to resist the Warriors’ three outstanding contract proposals. According to ESPN insiders Shams Charania and Anthony Slater, Golden State’s most lucrative offers include a two-year, $45 million deal and a three-year, $75.2 million deal, both with team options for the final season. The only offer without a team option is a three-year, $54 million deal.
The forward has threatened to accept the $7.9 million qualifying offer, which expires Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Taking the QO would make him an unrestricted free agent next offseason and grant him control over any midseason trade due to the offer’s no-trade clause.
Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, told ESPN’s Hoop Collective podcast that the player is leaning toward the QO unless the Warriors convert the team option into a player option. “If he’s treated fairly — and in our mind that’s flipping [the] team option to [a] player option — he’s back, and then we don’t have to talk about the [qualifying offer],” Turner said. “But the QO is real. It’s something that JK wants to take. It does have upside. You’re not getting traded. You’re going to have unrestricted free agency.”
Turner added that giving Kuminga a player option would ensure the forward returns fully engaged.
“If the Warriors want to win now, and they want a player who’s happy and treated fairly, who’s a big part of this team moving forward, you give him the player option,” Turner said. “You might lose a little trade value by giving that up. But if it’s about the here and now, you give him that. You don’t get a perfect deal, but you get a pretty good deal, and he feels respected. Then everyone can move on and focus on winning, helping Steph [Curry].”
Steph Curry Issues Stern Warning
Getty Stephen Curry set his expectations for Jonathan Kuminga when he settles his contract standoff with the Golden State Warriors.
As Kuminga’s standoff threatens to disrupt one of
“Negotiations are hard,” Curry told reporters during media day. “We all know that the idea of everybody’s situation is a little different. Everybody comes up with whatever narrative they want to. It’s how business kind of goes. Some things are pretty straightforward. Some things aren’t.
“This is definitely in the hard conversation category, but when he comes and he’s here, he should be a professional and do exactly what he expects to do, and take advantage of his opportunities to help us win everybody who’s in the locker room. That’s what you’re committed to doing. So I don’t have any concerns that he’ll approach it that way, and that’s what we expect.”
Curry’s remarks underscore the Warriors’ emphasis on professionalism and accountability, even as the contract impasse lingers and training camp approaches. The Warriors’ championship window hangs in the balance as the team awaits Kuminga’s decision, with Butler’s steady voice underscoring the importance of keeping both player and franchise aligned.
Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix and His Wife Izzy Smoke: Fast Facts You Need to Know
It’s been a quick ascent for Denver Broncos second year quarterback Bo Nix, who went from being the last of 6 quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft to runner-up for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Nix and the Broncos have high expectations in 2025 thanks to an elite defense featuring cornerback and NFL Defensive Player of the Year Patrick Surtain II and because of how well Nix played as a rookie.
Nix, 25 years old, comes from a longtime Southern football family. His grandfather, Conrad Nix, was a high school football coach for 43 years in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia while Nix’s father, Patrick Nix, was a 3-year starter at quarterback at Auburn, including an undefeated season in 1993.
Patrick Nix was also Bo Nix’s head coach at Pinson Valley (Alabama) High School, where Nix played with younger brother and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Tez Johnson.
Nix followed his father’s footsteps at Auburn, where he started for 3 seasons and was the SEC Freshman of the Year in 2019. It was also where he met his future wife, Auburn cheerleader Izzy Smoke, before he transferred to Oregon for his final 2 seasons in 2022 and 2023.
With the Ducks, Nix rewrote the NCAA record books in 2 seasons, going 22-5 as the starter before he and Smoke headed to Denver on a 4-year, $18.6 million rookie contract.
“The day I met Bo, he told me about this God-sized dream of his. I will never stop praising the Lord for His faithfulness or have enough words to express how proud I am of you, Bo,” Smoke wrote on
Here’s some more facts about Nix and Smoke, who got married on July 2, 2022, in Alpine, Alabama:
Alabama Natives Who Met at Auburn
Smoke is a Birmingham, Alabama, native — just 2.5 hours northwest of Phenix City — and she married Nix shortly after she graduated from Auburn with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science with minors in Psychology and Sport Coaching in May 2022.
The couple got engaged in September 2021.
After the wedding, Smoke and Nix packed up the U-Haul and headed west, traveling 2,600 miles across the country to Eugene, Oregon, where he joined 36-year-old first year head coach and former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning.
The move to Oregon — and the move 2 years later to Denver — left both husband and wife still trying to bring all of their stuff with them from Alabama.
“When Bo and I got married back in 2022, we moved across the country to Oregon and left all of our wedding gifts unopened in Alabama,” Smoke told Mestiza New York
Unique Way Couple Spent Draft Day
Instead of heading to Detroit and getting drafted in front of 275,000 NFL fans at Detroit’s Hart Plaza, Nix and Smoke chose to watch the draft at his family’s home in Alabama surrounded by family and friends.
When Nix answered the call from Broncos general manager George Paton to tell him he was going to be drafted, the first question he asked was “You want to go win a Super Bowl?”
