Three-time former Golden State Warriors champion center Kevon Looney, one of the team’s longest-tenured players not named Stephen Curry or Draymond Green, finally abandoned the team in free agency this summer.
The 29-year-old inked a two-season, $16 million free agent deal with the New Orleans Pelicans. The agreement includes a club option for New Orleans in 2026-27, meaning he could theoretically reach unrestricted free agency again as soon as next summer.
During a July 6 piece for The Players Tribune, the 6-foot-9 UCLA product broke down a fascinating final conversation with Curry and Green ahead of his free agent departure.
“… I’ll leave you with what me, Steph, and Draymond said to each other when I called them last week to break the news,” Looney explained a month ago. “Those were my first two calls. Those guys, they’ve been my big brothers for the past 10 years — showing me the ropes, guiding me, helping me to grow up.”
Looney was selected with the No. 30 pick during the summer of 2015, in the glow of Curry and Green’s first championship together. He didn’t crack the win-now Warriors’ rotation as a rookie, but eventually became a pretty critical, cost-effective option at center.
The shared messages, per Looney, were:
“What a journey we all went on together!”
“Ten amazing years.”
“It’s been one hell of a ride!”
He doesn’t accredit the quotes to any particular player.
Looney enjoyed his two most productive years with Golden State starting with the team’s most recent championship season, 2021-22.
While playing all 164 possible regular season games between 2021-23 (150 starts), Looney averaged 6.5 points on 60.2 percent field goal shooting and 60.4 percent free throw shooting, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.6 blocks per bout.
Looney is a bit undersized for a center, and lacks the verticality necessary to really threaten opposing bigs at the rim. As Steve Kerr struggled to find a consistent starting center last year (he ultimately settled on the 6-foot-6 Green), Looney’s role was reduced.
He started just six of his 76 healthy bouts in 2024-25, averaging 4.5 points on 51.4 percent shooting from the field ang 56.6 percent shooting from the charity stripe, 6.1 boards, 1.6 dimes, 0.6 swipes and 0.5 rejections per.
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