Steph Curry reportedly made $35M for 60 hours of work for FTX

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly paid Warriors star Steph Curry and former pro quarterback Tom Brady a combined $90 million to promote the failed cryptocurrency exchange, author Michael Lewis claimed.

Lewis, a Berkeley resident who wrote “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game” and “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” was interviewed by “60 Minutes” on Sunday. The 62-year-old was on the show to promote a new book about Bankman-Fried that he wrote after tailing the ex-billionaire for several years. Bankman-Fried is currently facing federal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering. His trial begins Tuesday, the same day Lewis’ book hits shelves.

Lewis met with the now-disgraced ex-CEO more than 100 times over two years in the course of reporting this book, per “60 Minutes.” He said he sees the result “as a kind of letter to the jury” in Bankman-Fried’s trial. 

Brady and Curry’s connection to all of this is that they were each hired to star in commercials, and serve as spokespeople, for Bankman-Fried’s now-defunct exchange. Lewis said he got a look at internal FTX documents during his time shadowing Bankman-Fried that showed how much the two celebrity endorsers received.

“He paid Tom Brady $55 million for 20 hours a year for three years,” Lewis said. “He paid Steph Curry $35 million for [the] same thing for three years.”

Ads featuring Curry and Brady promoting FTX have been scrubbed from official channels, but they can still be found online. Curry’s ad focused on the idea that although he wasn’t an expert on crypto, he could still succeed in the crypto world because FTX made things so easy. Brady’s ads portrayed the former quarterback as just a regular guy texting his friends about the hot new thing, which just so happened to be FTX. He even filmed an awkward video with Bankman-Fried in which he called the then-CEO “my boy Sam,” while attending a crypto conference in the Bahamas. (Bankman-Fried was ultimately extradited from the island nation to face his current slate of charges.)

As for Brady, Lewis told “60 Minutes” that Brady “adored” Bankman-Fried, and that the former CEO “really liked” the ex-NFL star.

“The nerd of all nerds,” Lewis said of Bankman-Fried, laughing. “Like, even the nerds don’t hang out with this nerd, he’s such a nerd. The quarterback somehow likes him. And he somehow likes the quarterback.”